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Balki has co-produced his wife`s directorial debut film in which the senior actress is making her comeback after nearly 15 years.
`English Vinglish` is a fun-filled slice-of-life movie exploring the impact of not knowing English language in everyday life. "I envy Gauri.. like I wanted to work with Sridevi first but she did. And then I wished I could have thought of this idea, but she did. I am actually jealous of her.. the film made me feel jealous. Both of the things I did not do, so I just had to sit and watch," Balki said.
In the trilingual movie, which has been shot in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, Sridevi plays the role of a housewife, who enrols for an English speaking course in order to please her husband and family.
"I think Sridevi is just perfect for this film. There are some portions that we have shot in Tamil and Telugu. The portion of Amitji has been shot by Ajith Kumar (South actor). So it is semi-dubbed, semi-shot," Balki said.
The film was earlier scheduled to release on September 21, with Kareena Kapoor starrer much awaited film `Heroine`. But now the release date has been pushed to October 5.
Balki`s lucky mascot megastar Amitabh Bachchan will have a cameo appearance in `English Vinglish`. "You need a character like that of Amitji in the film. It is not that I decided about Amitabh Bachchan. It was Gauri who thought she needed someone like him for a cameo. I asked him and he agreed to do it. It is a funny kind of a cameo," Balki said.
R Balakrishnan, popularly known as Balki and Bachchan have earlier teamed up for movies like `Cheeni Kum` and `Paa`.
Ask him whether Big B always be a common phenomenon in all his films, Balki says, "As long as he wants to act in my films, I would continue writing (for him). Like if you have the chance of having Mr Bachchan in your film then why would you not think of him."
"I am just going to start writing for a film. So I can`t talk much about it," Balki said.
The filmmaker`s association with Bachchan goes a long way since he worked with the megastar in many of his ad films. Balki said that it was only after he had made some 10-14 ad films with Bachchan that he got the confidence to approach the actor for his own movie.
