By Subhash K. Jha

A diehard Amitabh Bachchan loyalist, director Apoorva Lakhia took "Ek Ajnabee" to Lilavati Hospital to screen it there for the convalescing superstar.

"It was something that was bothering me," says Lakhia about the film that stars Bachchan.

"How could Bachchan not watch the film that was made entirely as a tribute to his talents? His illness really took the pleasure out of my film. Now that he's recovering, I carried the film to the hospital. He saw it and really enjoyed it."

Bachchan was hospitalised for an abdominal condition known as diverticulitis and was operated upon.

Director Lakhia has been inundated with reviews accusing him of upfront plagiarism but he is undaunted by the charges.

"I always knew I was remaking 'Man On Fire', and I never hid that fact. Initially, I was tempted to relocate the kidnapping story in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. But then we got to know that Prakash Jha's 'Apaharan' is coming at around the same time. So we took the story to Bangkok.

"There're three different versions of the film, including one in French. For me the challenge of presenting Asia's greatest star-actor in a unique way was the best part of remaking 'Man On Fire'.

"Bachchan has already been seen in seven different films in the last one year. I wanted him to be the larger-than-life loner hero like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. I wanted him to be Mount Everest. I think I've succeeded in doing that."