shetty

TO EACH ITS OWN

First off Kudos to Kamla for managing to pull this one off. She spoke to Abhishek Bachchan in LA, who was there as part of the Unforgettable Tour after having covered Canada and Trinidad. And as usual, Kamla’s questions were sharp, and to the point and revealed that she had done her homework. For instance, her knowing that AB baby collects watches. Who knew that? (I didn’t – not that I care enough anyways). That, and that a blog is underway.

Pity then that the interviewee was boring as hell!

For starters, all I wanted to do was pull the mike away from Bachchan junior and tell him to stop spouting platitudes. Everything was simply “marvelous” or “wonderful” (like the technological advances made in Bollywood since the 80s – when his father was acting.). What I wanted to hear, as no doubt Kamla wanted him to talk about, was a measure of change he’s perceived, but all he could come up with was a “of course through times the method of telling stories change, and the kind of stories being told change too“. Tell me something new!

Then Abhishek talks of himself: “Everything that I am is because of my audience” Yeah yeah, think of something original willya?

Oh wait a min, he tries: “People always comes into a film wanting to love you. They never let you down… I’ve always let them down.” Er…”We all have to work very hard, no matter which profession” and “Success and failure is part of life … and you have to take them both in the same way. I am what I am because of the love and faith of the people”. Ohhhh gaaaaawd. Yaaaawn!

And of course, Abhishek on Drona (releasing in October this year) was like hearing every filmstar’s description of their upcoming movie: Drona is…

1) New, Different; 2) Not seen on Indian screen before; 3) Very unique 4) We’ve all worked very hard on it. 5) Wonderful (Once again) to have done that movie.

When asked what a typical day for him was like he launched into a long-winded and totally irrelevant point of how everyone has to work very hard in their own respective work days, and that’s what he does too. Thanks Abhishek, but you kinda missed the whole point of the question!

At the end of it, I guess he’d run out of all the correct statements to make, so when Kamla asked him if he wanted to add anything, all he could come up with was, “Er no ma’am.”

Well, thank god for small mercies!

www.sakshijuneja.com/blog

Interviewing Abhishek Bachchan

By Kamla Bhatt • Jul 27th, 2008
Category: Books, Movies, Music, Televison, Bollywood, Events, India, Interviews, Life, Video

Today the Unforgettable Tour starring the Bachchans, Madhuri Dixit, Ritesh Deshmukh, Preity Zinta and others comes to the San Francisco bay area. The stars will perform at what was previously known as Oakland Coliseum, which is a giant sports stadium that can seat thousands of people. I imagine all the roads leading to the Coliseum will be jam-packed. So, if anyone is traveling on 880 this evening check the traffic conditions.

Yesterday I got an opportunity to interview Abhishek Bachchan on the phone just before their Los Angeles performance. He was right on time for the call, which scored him big points. What came across when talking to him is how accessible and open he was and the respect he showed towards his fans. Due to a software glitch at my end parts of the audio conversation were marred and I lost some great sound bites. For instance one of the questions I asked him was how does he relax. Pat came the answer, “By watching movies.” To which I asked if he was partial to Hindi or English films and he answered neither. Apparently he did watch the latest box-office hit The Dark Knight the day he landed in Los Angeles a couple of days ago.

I wish I had asked him about the new Mani Ratnam project. According to media reports both Abhishek and Aishwarya will star in this new film. I had lots of questions that I left unasked. A couple of people pinged me wondering why I did not ask about his marriage or the baby question. Everybody needs their privacy and the tone of the interview was not about his private life, but was about Abhishek, the actor and how he has evolved.

What came across loud and clear is that Abhishek Bachchan does not have a sense of entitlement. He wants to earn his spurs by hard work and discipline. I really liked his answers and his attitude on how he reacts and responds to critiques. He treats them as helpful suggestions that help improve his acting skills. It was a real pleasure to interview him and hopefully I get another chance to interview him sometime in the future.

DesiYou has a video interview with Abhishek and Aishwaraya.

Here is wishing him the very best.

http://kamlashow.com/blog/2008/07/27/interviewing-abhishek-bachchan/