It's become the norm rather than the exception to do favours for friends by doing cameos and item songs for free in their projects. Amitabh Bachchan returned Shah Rukh Khan's cheque after doing a cameo in his home production, Paheli. Now Abhishek is doing the same.
The Junior B recently shot for an item number for Apoorva Lakhia's Mission Istaanbul sans any compensation leaving Popcorn producer Sunil Shetty stunned!

Nobody Like You — that’s the title of the zingy song that Apoorva Lakhia will shoot for Mission Istanbul with Abhishek Bachchan on three consecutive nights from 21 June onwards.

Confirming the shooting of this belated song-and-dance, Lakhia says, “Abhishek has always gone out of his way for me. He had a cameo in my Ek Ajnabee and Shootout At Lokhandwala. In fact, I consider the Bachchans lucky for me. Right at the start of Mission Istanbul, I had asked Abhishek to do a song and dance for me. We were just waiting for him to get the time.”

The next few days will be extremely hectic for the makers of MISSION ISTAANBUL. Reason being, two separate songs will be filmed, almost simultaneously, on Abhishek Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi at different locations of Mumbai [Abhishek makes a special appearance in the movie]. That's one of the reasons why the release has been pushed ahead by two weeks.

Abhishek to sing and perform an item song for Sunil Shetty

Junior, Anna and Apu aka Abhishek, Sunil Shetty and Apoorva Lakhia are best buds. And now this friendship will be turning into a business alliance with Abhishek all set to perform on an item number in Mission Istanbul for producer Suniel and director Apoorva’s 80-crore budgeted action epic.

Anu Malik, who turned 47 this month, has often been accused of adopting and plagiarising songs. But the composer is now stepping into a new groove. He has done a Hindi version of the chart-busting track 'World, Hold On' by Bob Sinclar entitled 'Ruba Dilruba World Hold On' for Apoorva Lakhia’s Mission Istanbul. Instead of simply ‘stealing’ the tune, Anu has acquired the copyright for it.

Balaji Telefilms Pvt Ltd. and co-producers Popcorn Motion Pictures Pvt Ltd. have set the ball rolling for their film Mission Istanbul. The first song was recently recorded in Mumbai with music director Anu Malik being complimented by a famous Turkish singer Ege.

Mission Istanbul has ensemble cast featuring names like Suneil Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan, Zayed Khan, Viviek Oberoi, Shreya Saran, Nikitan Dhir, and Shabbir Ahluwalia. Director Apoorva Lakhia will head the extensive shooting schedule that will start in Turkey on October 25.

Suniel Shetty's eagerly-awaited production of the global espionage thriller Mission Istanbul seems to be going through a lot of casting upheavals.

First it was Bobby Deol who opted out and was replaced by Zayed Khan. Then Tusshar Kapoor didn’t have the required dates. The latest rumour doing the rounds is that Sagarika Ghatge, Preeti Sabarwal from Chak De India, has been signed to play one of the female leads in Mission Istanbul.