Having a Sooraj Barjatya film is a matter of pride for an actor. Anyone who has worked with Barjatya will tell you that the soft-spoken director is a man of few words, keeping his praise and critique to the bare minimum. This often left the cast of Uunchai—comprising Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Parineeti Chopra, Neena Gupta, Sarika and Nafisa Ali—in a quandary, as they wouldn’t understand whether the director was happy with their shot or not. However, as filming progressed, the actors realised that he had a unique, and almost involuntary, way of expressing his appreciation.

A source reveals, “During shoots, Sooraj is quiet and almost poker-faced, and does not react at all. Since many of these actors were collaborating with him for the first time, they used to look to him for feedback on their shots. But soon, they realised he has a habit of doing a small jump whenever a shot has turned out perfectly.” The source adds that on the last day of filming, Bachchan, Kher and Irani mimicked Barjatya’s jump to show him how much they enjoyed collaborating with him. At a recent promotional event, the senior actors repeated the act, leaving the filmmaker in splits.