'‘Ek chunauti pratidin milni chahiye’'

On his 67th birthday, the legendary Amitabh Bachchan in conversation with Ayaz Memon on the journey till now.

A few days shy of his 67th birthday, Amitabh Bachchan has little time for stock-taking. His new assignment as the sutradhar of Bigg Boss entails a shoot every Friday in Lonavala; every other day of the week, he is shooting for some other film, rehearsing for a ramp walk, going through new scripts, keeping up with fan mail, attending functions, receiving awards, writing his blog…

There is just no slowing down for a man who completes 40 years in the Hindi film industry this year, and who has pretty much been at the top of his game for 35 of these, give or take a few knocks. What keeps him going?

“There must be a challenge in front of the actor every day, otherwise the artiste in you will die,’’ says Bachchan, the timbre in his voice still intact, the thoughts clearly articulated. “So many people tell me that ‘you have achieved so much in your life. So sit at home. Play with your grandchildren’. But there needs to be a fear in me. Like now I am sitting in front of you, but I am scared that now I have to go and rehearse. I will be coming on TV tomorrow, so what should I say and how would I fare? Tomorrow there would be the shooting of one more film. I am worried about what kind of character it would be, whether I will be able to do it well or not. I still get butterflies in the stomach. I believe this is really necessary for an artiste.’’

This urge to stay ‘alive’ has seen Bachchan reinvent himself periodically, stay in step with new generation. Sometimes this is fraught with fear, but the excitement soon takes over, and life takes on a new dimension.

“Today the average age on my film sets is roughly around 25 years and sometimes I ask myself ‘what is an old man like you, who is 40 years older than them, doing on the sets?’” he muses. “But I admire the young generation. They have so much josh and confidence. I have never seen such an environment. We used to be very cautious, fearful. These people are fearless and constantly driven by the urge to excel. I am glad that want to work with me. Luckily there always seem to be a character where I can fit myself in.”

Excerpts of the interview
Q: It’s difficult to sum up a 40-year journey in a few words, but make an attempt…
A: Forty years is a long journey, I get confused about what to say and what to leave out. I got my first role in Saat Hindustani. After that, for a few years I kept looking for a job. Then came this chance meeting with Prakash Mehra, Salim-Javed. I did several films with Prakash Mehra like Hera Pheri, Khoon Paseena, Namak Halal. During this time I also met Manmohan Desai and a lot of films were born in this association…Amar Akbar Anthony, Naseeb. In this period, there were also Ramesh Sippy and Yash Chopra. With Ramesh, I did Sholay and with Yash I did films like Silsila, Kabhie Kabhie.

When this decade got over a new generation of filmmakers like Mukul Anand and Tinnu Anand came along. Then the next generation came along with people like Adi Chopra and Karan Johar and I got a chance to work in films like Mohabbatein and Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham.

During the nineties, I thought that I had worked enough and that I should take a sabbatical. So I didn’t work for about five, six years and went abroad. I operated a TV channel called TV Asia in the UK and USA. In the US I would get letters from large film corporations like Sony, 20th Century Fox etc. I wondered what they would have to do with an actor from India, but when I met them, I was startled with the research that they had done about the entertainment industry in India. They had all the information about me — where I was born, which films I had done, everything. My counsel, who used to help me for concerts and tours abroad, explained the reason for such a detailed study.

He told me “Amitabh, I think that you should go back because the Americans are going to come there and you should be there at that time.” Interestingly, all their letters always had a similar subject — ‘India the new frontier’. When I returned, I saw that the film industry we had here was being run like family businesses. I thought why not start a proper corporation, as in the west? So I started AB corp.

Then came the next generation of very young and talented filmmakers like Sujoy Ghosh, Shoojit Sircar who I am working with now. In this way, forty years have gone by.
 
Q: What prompted you to join films? Your father was a poet, your mother was not connected to films in any way…
A: Since the time I was in kindergarten I had an attraction for the stage. I would take part in plays in school regularly. After my Senior Cambridge in November, I came to Delhi. I did some plays during that time too. After university, I went to Calcutta for work and I found a lot of amateur dramatic groups. I used to get a decent salary of Rs 1,200, had a car and a flat too where three four of us used to stay together. Life was comfortable.

But soon I left everything because I was dissatisfied. I came back home to Delhi. Then my brother, who used to work in a shipping company, got a posting in Mumbai. One of the girls in my brother’s social circle used to work with Abbassaab. I was told that he was looking for new faces. My brother sent my photographs to him. When he got to know my surname, he said, ‘You are Harivanshji’s son? I need to find out first if you have run away from home.’ He spoke to my father, and only then gave me a role. 
 
Q: Is it true that you got paid about three thousand rupees for Saat Hindustani?
A: I got paid about five thousand, perhaps lesser. But it was a strange feeling of elation because I was working in films for the first time and on top of that then there was the opportunity of working with Abbassaab. Everybody knew him and the films he made.

He also had a column on the last page of Blitz newspaper which I used to read regularly. Abbassaab was a socialist and his daily living was also based on his beliefs and philosophy. He would never live in luxury and talk about the common man. He was an unbelievable personality. Even when he was making the film, he never made anybody feel like a star by giving him special treatment. We travelled to Goa for the shoot in third class. We stayed in government circuit houses and all in the same room. There was no electricity and we had lanterns with us. We would all sleep on the floor, including Abbassaab.

Q: There was a period of struggle after Saat Hindustani…
A: Everybody goes through such a period. We can’t blame anybody for this. A lot of money goes into making films and if you have never seen my work, why will you give me a job?  Things start getting better when you get small roles and people start talking about you. Like Dutt saab took me in Reshma Aur Shera, Abbassaab introduced me to Hrishikesh Mukherjee who said, ‘Okay, I will give you a role in Anand’. In Parwana, I worked with Om Prakashji. He liked my work and spoke about me to some more people.

Q: You have seen both success and failure. What is the learning that you have gained from them?
A: Babuji used to tell me man ka ho to accha, aur na ho to zyada achha. He told me that if something doesn’t turn out the way that you want then perhaps God wants it that way, so that is why is it’s even better.
 
Q: What about Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s influence?
A: A lot of people still think that I did the maximum number of films with Manmohan Desai or Prakash Mehra, but they are with Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The kind of films he made can’t be seen today…You could neither label them as art films nor could you say that they were commercial cinema. There used to be the truth of life in them, which is a very hard thing to achieve. People only talk about his hit films but Hrishida’s films Guddi, Abhimaan, Milee, Chhupke Chhupke. Bemisal, or Jurmana were something else. His vision was clear because he was a good editor; even before the scene was shot, he had actually edited it in his mind.

Q: You worked with Dilip Kumar in Shakti. How influenced were you by him?
A: I have been his fan since childhood. Waheedaji and he are my idols. Nobody in India can match his acting ability. The actors who came in after Dilipsaab are lying if they claim that they have not been influenced by him. I still watch Dilipsaab and get to learn something from him everyday. Kitni bariki ke saat har kirdaar par mehnat karte the.
 
Q: Newer generations feel that the ultimate in acting is Amitabh Bachchan…
A: I would tell them that they are mad. They should watch Dilipsaab and some other big stars of that era.

Q: You are being modest….
A: No, actors then were so natural. Woh baat nahin rahi. We still try to be natural like them. With superior technology, graphics, computer graphics, we look better and more beautiful. But look at Dilipsaab, Rajsaab, Motilal, Balraj Sahni — how they used to portray their roles so easily and so naturally.

Q: Is there a role you covet?
A: If I get a chance I want to do Ganga Jamuna. I used to wonder that Dilipsaab who used to stay in a city like Mumbai, could manage to speak and behave like people in UP so well. Because I also hail from Uttar Pradesh, I could understand the nuances of the character, and admire Dilipsaab’s effort even more. It was startling.
 
Q: Would you say that your biggest mistake was joining politics?
A: I wouldn’t say mistake. We were friends with the family since the time of my parents. Sarojini Naidu liked my father and took him to meet Panditji. I thought since a bad accident has happened in the family, we should all stand by them. I was asked to contest the elections, I did. After entering politics I found that it’s a game and I was not a good player. Before I put my own inadequacies on the people who had chosen me to represent them, I thought that I should leave the game. So I accepted defeat and bowed out.
 
Q: It might have affected the friendship….
A: Not exactly. We were always family friends and we will always be that way.
 
Q: You still have a lot of friends like Amar Singh. Are you a very loyal friend and like such loyalty in return?
A: If you are making a friend thinking that you will have to give something and will get something in return, then I think that you are not doing the right thing. We become friends because we like certain things about each other. When you give it a number or an expression, then that is not friendship. That’s a deal. When I consider somebody a friend, he is a friend. When I met Amar Singh, he was not where he is today. And neither was I. He has now become a member of my family.

(NB: The interview published has been translated from Hindi but every care has been taken to convey the nuance of the answers.)