Abhishek Bachchan “I Had The Fear Of Being Forgotten By People”

What situations in life lead you to take this decision of taking a break/sabbatical?
When I decided I needed to take this sabbatical, I was very convinced that this is what I needed to do for myself, for my career and the decision had been made. I mean obviously normal table conversation, I did tell my family that this is what I wanted to do.

What advice did your father give you, did he support your decision?
My father did respond in a similar way, I mean I don’t think he was as infatic, as he would have been with Anil but he said look you know I did this and it was the biggest mistake I did in my career and he said, are you sure you want to do this? I mean its your call but he gave me his opinion.

Do you think you can cope up with the audience expectations after coming back from this sabbatical?
I think time was different when he did it in 1992, if I am not mistaken. When my father finished shooting KhudaGawah, he decided for various reasons that he wanted to take a break and after 5 – 6 years he was kind of coerced into coming back. In those dayswhen he came back, he felt he had lost touch what the audience wanted. Also in that interim period there was an entire new generation that had come into watching movies. But more importantly, there was an entire new generation making movies. The likes of Sooraj Barjatya, Aditaya Chopra had come in and left their stamp and changed Indian Cinema and how the audience wanted to view cinema, what kind of hero’s they wanted. Suddenly from the ‘angry young man’ it became ‘romantic NRI’ hero, so when my dad came back he felt that ‘O My God’, I am still doing the kind of movie I did in the late 80s and early 90s and that wasn’t working. That was why, he felt it was amistake,he felt he lost touch. I was very aware of this because obviously having lived through that phase with him. But when I decided I think times have changed, there is a lot more information, you are lot more accessible and plus I wasn’t planning to go off to the mountain and just vegetate for like two years. I was very sure of how I wanted to execute this plan of mine. In fact, taking a break and stop making films was actually the first step of plan. This is something I had been thinking of the last 4 – 5 years. All my friends are from the film Industry, the people I socialize with on the normal basis are from in some way the film Industry or the media. So I think today you have social media as well and I think it is very easy to keep a list of what is going on and what kind of film is being made. I wasn’t really removing myself from this world, so I was very sure of that I am not going to lose touch but more importantly it was a very personal decision where I felt I just needed to recalibrate how I was working. It wasn’t the kind of work I was doing, it is how I was doing the work and I was very confident in the kind of actor I hoped to come backas, I had more confidence in that actor that I did in the doubt of ‘O My God’ I am going to lose touch, out of sight and out of mind, or you going to be left behind all these kind of things so I was more confident on the person that I aimed to become and I think that’s the difference in my dad’s time and my time.

What was your experience your conclusion from this decision you took?
It kind of just emanated from a place where I just felt at becoming very complacent in my professional attitude. It is a bit of an irony you know, I am sure in most fields in cinema you work hard to attain a certain level of material comfort as well, I mean lets all be honest to yourselves that is the big part of our lives and once you attain that comfort then you just start coasting along with it. What happened with me professionally is when I was in a phase, where I was making some very successful films, I was getting paid some very good money, I had no pressure to deliver a hit because that was on a fellow actor of mine. I was very comfortable and in a happy space. I was working with some of my dearest friends having great time making movies and what happens is, once it works then you do another one because you know it works, then you do the third one saying this is really easy.

What is your perspective on “EASY LIFE”, do you think it is necessary to come out of your comfort zone?
Life isn’t meant to be easy specially films. Film-making is definitely not meant to be easy as a creative person, as an actor specially today it is very important, it is very important to be challenged on daily basis. When you can sleep peacefully and wakeup and say I can do this with my eye shut and I can coast along it is a great space to be in. I am not going to lie to you, but what happens I realized that if I carry on like this what I am bringing to the table in terms of a film or a project, is going to keep depleting film by film, as I am not contributing anything. I am just there and having a blast and I am getting paid well, films are becoming 200-300 corers. But if I am going to stop contributing to my project in two three films, then my producers are going to say, “hey why do I need him I will take somebody else!”, so you become disposal. I wanted to stop before I reach that stage, I said, “you need to stop, you need to take a step back”, and just recalibrate like re-energize or focus and come back with a plan.

Can you tell us something about your debut in Bollywood or how did this journey start ?
People don’t believe it but even though I am born and brought up in this film industry and this film industry is my life, it genuinely is, making movies is something that I am most passionate about, I love film industry, I love making films, I love watching films, its my world. Now what happens, when I got the opportunity to become an actor and I say I got an opportunity again people did not believe it, it wasn’t easy coming for me in that sense everybody would have thought being Mr. Bachchan’s son. There was a line of praises. I was at that point working for my father in his production company as a production boy and assistant director and that’s when I was trying to get a job and shockingly, which should have been a reality check for me, which I obviously did not let it impact me as much as it should have and most of them, all the ones who said no to me, they said, “they do not want the responsibility of launching Amitabh Bachchan’s son”, because they realized what that would cost or take. Then suddenly one day, as a blessing walked in Mr. J.P. Datta, he offered me a film and I jumped at the opportunity, so I mean obviously who would not like to work with him? I was not enjoying the results but I was enjoying the process.

What do you think about the future like in various point of views like legacy point of view etc , what do you think could age be a factor in this ?
I am sure it could but it was not for me, not age but may be time spent.
Being a professional is after a point you start evaluating your life say, “hey! What do I stand for?”, “what am I going to be remembering?”, and these are the important questions and I think for me it was more after the birth of my daughter, that I started asking myself these questions.

What do you think about the movies you did in the past in which you feel you performed really well perhaps people didn’t watched it & you felt really worse about it. Can you share any examples or experience?
I believe that every film has its own destiny, the one truth which as an actor is very seldom own up to, when you see your film which you do before the audience does, you know whether its going to work or not, you know whether you’ve given your best because you know the amount of effort you’ve put in while filming it. So you realize that after that you know hope is a very dangerous thing, you just hope it clicks, but you know the truth. Very honestly I have done some 60 films now. I have been wrong just about one of them, because of the way I worked in it I can’t comment on other peoples work. I am one of those people who believes, that if your work is that good then your film will work.

Which was the one movie you were wrong about?
‘JhoomBarabarJhoom’, I loved doing ‘jhoombarabarjhoom’ I had such a blast, it had great music. Shahrukh and I were collaborating after ‘BuntyAurBabli’ we had a blast making the film. We all had a blast watching the screening of it but then when the film did not end up doing the kind of business I thought it would do, it kind of threw me off, but then I realized why it didn’t.That was the one film which didn’t do what I expected it to do, it didn’t do badly actually but not what I expected it to do. That was the only one.

What you think went wrong in ‘ jhoom barabar jhoom’?
I think what went wrong in ‘jhoom barabar jhoom’ is there was a problem in relatability because the characters was a bit too eccentric and flamboyant. To act with the characters were very out there, so they just switched off from it and they were like this is a trip we don’t want to be on.

Is it true that you always review your performance like a reviewer?
Yes, it’s true! Like I said every actor knows in the end of the day whether they have done a good job, whether they can do better. Yes! When you do go back and review, you start growing as an actor so I think it is a part of an exercise of when you can look back at your work and find false in a sense is reassuring because that means you are already evolved a bit more then when you were doing the film. And I like to review my films regularly because I make notes that how I could’ve improve that performance or what I need to be careful of.

Do you actually read what people say about your performance, is that true?
Yes! as many as I can. When I started my career I use to actually put up all of the reviews on my bathroom mirror and I use to highlight the portions that critics had not liked about me personally and it was a kind of visual representation for me that from the first film to the latest film the highlighted section should reduce, so that was a kind of self improvement, so I use to do that.

Do you trust the directors far to much giving their past records?
No! I have never judged them on their past record, its just I am a complete director’s actor, if I have a disagreement about how a director is seeing a particular scene my approach is “let me try and convince them” if they are not convinced then I have to whole heartedly submit to what their vision is, whether I agree in it or not.

What do you think about “Game” what went wrong in it?
“Game” went through a lot of casting changes, we kind of lost the focus of the film. Somewhere we kind of compromised the soul of the film.

What do you think about being selfish to become very successful was it in respect to certain career choices you made?
I think one of the things I’ve learned from the younger generation I mean like 15-25 year old is that there is a immense sense of professionalism and confidence in what they do, it doesn’t matter who is standing in front of them. I grew up in a generation because maybe I am from the film industry, there is this whole element of respect, they are ok with that but once the camera comes on, they want to come at you in front of the camera, in the scene and give it their whole, whereas I know in the past somewhere as an actor or in any profession and I mean this in the best possible way. I don’t mean this negatively ‘be selfish’. Be selfish for yourself, for your craft, for your own people in that sense be selfish because you need to be a bit selfish to give your best, if you are not convinced in your own head, then you are not going to be able to give your best, then you are doing injustice to the venture. There is absolutely nothing wrong.

Since you’ve spent much time in sports like kabaddi, football & you’ve also spoken about how sport is an closest metaphor for life, so do you derive a lot from sports people ?
Yes! Immensely, I was a sportsman when I was in school and then in college. I still play sports and I really think sports teaches you so much about life, it prepares you for the world out there. If it’s a team sport it teaches you about teamwork, it teaches you about sportsman spirit, more importantly it teaches you how to fight back as a team. It teaches you how to never give up, so I think there are a lot of wonderful metaphors in life that you can draw with sports as well and there are wonderful sportsmen out there that I have idolized and been so inspired by their journey and how they’ve gone about achievingwhat they achieved and one thing that I really learnt from them is in their mind they are convinced that they are the best at what they do. My first love in sports is basketball.

What do you think about the combination of an actor and director become very important element for an actors career ?
Absolutely! But I think that so in any field, you’ve seen wonderful actor-director combination survived for a long time and I think that’s very important. I mean not just actor-director, even actresses and their director had some wonderful collaboration. That’s important because there is a level of trust, you also know that this guy is going to take care of me or this lady is going to take care of me, I understand their vision, I know what they are talking about, they don’t need to spend extra time to get out the performance that they need because I know them instinctively what they want.

Which have been your favourite directors in terms of a combination ?
Lot of them! I mean to start with J.P Datta because he introduced me to the world of cinema. A lot of my education about acting and cinema was through him, but with him it was like a holiday for me. I knew that he would take care of me, he treated his actors like his children so J.P Datta off course!. I really enjoyed working a lot with Mani, with Ramu I really enjoyed working a lot with Karan. I also enjoyed working with Anurag and Ashutosh as well. I’ve learned a lot from different directors.

Was it difficult or easy for you to be AmithabBachchan’s son when you were not in that zone, when you moved out from that world to do your school and college or when you were among people who were not from the films?
Well the best way to answer the question is I don’t know anything else its easy that’s all I know from when I was born by the grace of God I am MR. & MRS. Bachchan son that’s the only life I know the only way I know to behave and that’s all I’ve ever had, so its normal.

Is it true you said that Amitabh Bachchan is a loner ?
Yes! He likes time by himself and a lot of actors do, I think it kind of helps you to acquaint yourself with somebody, which you actually know the least which is yourself. So I think every actor likes that time where they can have their time. But my father by enlarge is somebody who is very shy and he keeps to himself a lot .

Are you more like your mom ?
Yes! My mom is more extroverted then my father, so I would say even as an actor I would say I am more like my mom.

We wanted to know about what was your reaction on the controversy of “Manmarziyan” about the 3 scenes that the Sikh community had a problem with so the makers went ahead and requested CBFC to delete those scenes, so as an actor how would you react to that?
I think each individual is allowed to react the way they haveor they want to, its their personal opinion, for me its not a big deal because ‘see, what is your film about’? my film isn’t about anybody smoking, I have no problem cutting that out if somebody has taken objection to it and they are feeling that the intention of the film or the makers is not to upset anybody or any community. We are not here to ruffle and feathers, we are just here to make a nice love story, that’s what the film is about. By cutting out 1 or 2 shots its going to placket somebody or make them feel better I have no problems doing that and I say this very sincerely, I really don’t have an issue with it, everybody is allowed to react the way they want, it’s a free country.

What do you think about audience issues over a flim ?
My views is very different, I am looking at its entirety. Ask yourself two questions why and who is objecting? What is the purpose behind that objection, if that is genuine then you should look upon it genuinely because as somebody who is a part of film, as a film maker you make movies for an audienceso if your audience, even if one member has a issue with something, you need to first ascertain is that a genuine issue, if it is a genuine issue you need to address it. I am making a movie for them not for myself and if they have a problem then I need to understand why, if I am convinced with that, the next I need to ask is who is the loser here, who stands to lose in a situation like we are in right now, I’ll tell you who stands to lose -the exhibiter stands to lose. I as an actor have done my job, I’ve been paid, the producer has sold his film to the studio, the studio has there and then sold the film to the distributor, who is then sold it to an exhibitor.

What do you have to say about “Yuva”?
I turned the corner in my career with “Yuva”. “Yuva” is the first film where I actually got positive reviews, so for the first time it was kind of relieving for me because I just felt like “ok I can do it”. The industry, the audience, the critic, they kind of gave me a thumbs up for the first time, so for me its always been a important film in my journey as an actor, it’s a film I really enjoyed doing with the maker that I love Mani Ratnam.

Would your choices of making a filmchange as Aaradhya grow up?
Yes! I will now choose whatever work I do in my professional career based on Aaradhya. I would not personally, currently like to make a film that I feel Aaradhya would feel awkward watching.

When you choose a film to work on what are the factors you consider to decide on closing the narration?
First and for most would I like to watch this film as an audience, I think that’s more important because there in turn does this film have the ability to be the success at the box office, that should be your first criteria and if possible your only criteria. Every other decision and question after that has to be keeping this is mind, so for me it would. I want to watch this and know can this film work at the box office.

Do you have a target audience in mind when you go through your personal prospects?
I think that has to change from film to film, when we were doing “Manmarziyan” Iwas very clear of the capacity of this film and the kind of people that will watch this film and then you budget a film accordingly. Most of the time what happens, is our films don’t fail our budgets fail in terms. When we did “Manmarziyan” we were very clear who were making this film for and the potential of this film and thankfully that paid off because today people have enjoyed the film. The producers have made their money and nobody is in loss of money and that’s great! That’s the way it should be.

How do you face criticism?
Criticism is very important, for me it has been, its important to be criticized because that’s how you are going to grow, its important to take criticism, its important to understand criticism but more importantly you have to act upon criticism. Try and change someone’s point of view especially if you’re an film maker because if your audience feels in a particular way and a film critic or anybody who is criticizing your work is also your audience. Your job is to make each and everyone in your movie theater happy about coming in there, buying a ticket and watching your film. So anybody who has something positive or negative take it, implement it in your next work its very important, don’t shun criticism ever.

You have been an sports entrepreneur and you are an actor as well these are two completely differently skillsets to work on, so how do you manage to work on these different fields?
“Where there is a will there is a way” if your passionate about something you love doing something you will find a way to do it , Yes! They are completely different skills sets you need very good help, you need avery good management, you need very good people audient in scheduling your time. I thankfully have wonderful managers who manage to allocate the needed time for whatever I do. So far I am managing to juggle both the worlds, I have no complaints because I enjoy doing it but I think its about to get the right people for the right job.