Som

LINK

Born in one of Bollywood’s most revered families, Abhishek Bachchan did not have it easy as he stepped into the world of movies and make believe. Constant comparisons to his father, his marriage to one of the most beautiful women on the planet Aishwarya Rai and his initial run at the box office, made Abhishek one of the most easy targets of those within and outside the industry.

However after a couple of failures, AB’s career has turned a corner recently. With powerful performances in films like Sarkar Raj and Dostana, Abhishek has definitely become a force to reckon with. In fact as he edges close to wrapping a decade in the industry, Abhishek seems to have become more focused, clear, mature, stable and interestingly a lot more innocent than ever before.

He spoke to StarBoxOffice about his movies, career, family and his famous life partner.

Harshita Kohli

Before we go anywhere with this interview, I have to tell you that you are looking super fit these days. Tell us about this super sexy look!
(Laughs) I lost weight for Mani’s (Ratnam) film Raavan that I am doing right now. He wanted a very lean look for the film and so there were countless hours in the gym…Countless.

Talking about Raavan and your next film Paa in which you play a completely different character… How does this switch on-switch off happen as you bounce from one set to another?
I think as actors we are all very used to doing more than one film at a time. It’s just the way it has always been and we are used to. In fact doing just one film throws you off a bit because you are not used to it. But what happened in this case was that I shot Raavan for 3 months and then we had a 3 month break in our schedule which has been accounted for earlier during which I took up Paa. And now Paa is complete… It was a straight forward 40 day shoot and therefore it made sense to slot it in there. And now that I have finished that, I am headed back into Raavan.

The past year has been a mixed bag as far as your movies are concerned at the box office… Are you able to enjoy a hit film like Dostana if your other films like Delhi 6 and Drona don’t do as well?
You don’t deal with it, it deals with you! You do the work you believe in and what you think you will enjoy doing and of course add to that what you think will work. And sometimes you are right and a lot of the times you are wrong.We work in an industry in which, I think, at last check has an eight percent success ratio. So it just goes to show that you have to do what you believe in as you don’t always know what the audience believes in or is thinking or wants. And even if you may know what they want, there is no guarantee that you will be able to deliver exactly what they want.

My movies have always excited me creatively and that’s why I do them. I am definitely not the kind of actor who does movies because it’s the right move to make. You know, I’ve always believed that if your heart isn’t into a subject, then don’t do it.

Have you always worked on your instinct?
Yes! You have to. My theory on it is that you don’t know if the movie is going to work or not. If we knew whether the film was going to work – if we had that ability – then we’d only make hit films which we don’t.

You don’t know the fate of the film but what you do know is whether you are going to have a good time making it, are you going to make it a learning experience, a memorable experience and that’s what I concentrate more on. The process of making a film that excites you is a lot more important.

If it becomes a hit which is the intention, fantastic! Then it’s what we call sone peh suhagaa but if it doesn’t, learn from it but don’t beat yourself about it.

Considering the fact that you came from a family that is revered in Bollywood, do you think the expectations from you are always really high from day one?
No, never. That thought doesn’t even cross my mind because the expectations that I have for myself are a lot higher than what people have for me. So yeah, I’ve never even thought about it.

I mean when I see a film of mine, in all humility, I know how good or bad my job is and I know it better than anyone else. And any actor would say that. We know when we’ve done a good job or not, we know when the film is good or not. So you are actually your first critic. After that when reviews come out or the public verdict, it just re-affirms or highlights what you already know. That’s what I have had in my experience.

So therefore would it be fair to say that no matter what an actor may come out and say publicly, he or she knows that when a movie doesn’t do well that they’ve probably messed up?
Possibly, see believing in a film is very different to whether that film is going to work or not and whether they think its going to work or not. I believed in Drona. I never knew, I didn’t expect it to not do as well as it didn’t. I saw certain flaws in it but I didn’t believe that those would be the reasons why the film would not be accepted. So you can always believe in a film, the fate of the film though is a different matter!

Do you think you were always destined to be in the Hindi Film Industry?
Destiny, I definitely believe in. Did I want to be here? Ya, for sure. I mean I grew up in this industry. This was my world. I grew up in a creative home. I had a grandfather who was a poet-writer and a great one at that. I had both parents who were actors. So I grew up around creativity. My best friends were somehow connected to the film industry. There was always the film industry somehow around me, so it was almost like a natural instinct to want to become a part of it as well.

Ever thought of being a director instead of an actor then?
No…No!

Why? Are actors difficult to deal with?
Direction isn’t only about dealing with actors. I just feel as an actor you already have so much to do and to bring that down to a very fine art and a craft is a very demanding job in itself. And that’s just one aspect of filmmaking. A director deals with a thousand more so I don’t think I am equipped to be able to handle so much. I have a tough enough time being an actor! (laughs)

You know you mentioned earlier that you practically grew up in this industry. So then when you finally joined it, did you find that your perception of it was exactly how the industry really worked?
I think everybody has a belief and a perception of what this place might be. And 99 out of 100 times they are wrong. This is the world of make believe so you have the license to believe. You think it should be like this and it will like that but it’s never like that.

But at the same time I did not have any rude awakening. It’s pretty much gone according to what I thought it would go like. I was never convinced that I would come here and become a superstar overnight. I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I knew it was an uphill task, I knew I would have to struggle for it. And I have.

You say you knew you wouldn’t become a superstar over night. But would you have wanted to?
Well, it’s not a nice thing to say but I am happy the way my life turned out the way it did. I am not taking away from achieving success instantly. I just feel that wasn’t written for me, you know. And I feel what I have learnt through the years that my films weren’t doing well, what it taught me as a person, as an actor are priceless things which I would not have learned. That’s a guarantee that I wouldn’t have been the actor that I am today if my first film had been a super success.

In the short period you have been here, are there any moments that you regret?
Never… never. I don’t regret any of my films. The way I look at it I learned a lot more from them.