Abhishek Bachchan holds up his hand to show the thick orange-strapped diving watch from the brand he endorses and says, “It’s shark resistant, which means a shark may eat you up, but the watch will survive.”
It’s these attributes of loyalty and humour that have stood by the junior Bachchan almost as much as his famous lineage and popular spouse. For, if he didn’t see humour in life, he would not have survived 17 flops in four years and still hung on bravely.
But the once happy-go-lucky star kid was not always so good-humoured about his career. After the series of flops, he told his father he thought he had made a mistake entering this profession. The Big B, no stranger to struggle himself, “got very upset and said, I did not bring you up to be a quitter. I brought you up to fight and I am telling you that you have it in you. You are improving with every film. Go out there, train, improve, work hard and things will turn around,” Abhishek says.
So the actor accused of not working hard enough on his roles, took his father’s advice and also that of childhood friend Aditya Chopra, and immersed himself in his profession.
“Adi once told me it takes a lot for the audience to love someone. Don’t disrespect that. So you have to be conscious of what you are doing and how you are doing it. Never give the impression that you are sleepwalking through something because they come with expectations.You cannot slight that.”
From then, Junior became more conscious of his job. He went from being “a kid in a candy store”, excited to be doing what he had always dreamt of doing without really understanding the craft or technique, to gathering the tools. “I was very immature and not prepared at all. Today I feel far more equipped. You learn something new about life and work everyday and every day you learn something new as an actor.”
Company man
Chopra also gave Abhishek another gift, Dhoom, which is counted as his first big hit. Ten years in the industry and 40 films later, now a 33-year-old man, Abhishek has had both success and failure. Only now has he become a real part of his family company, AB Corp. He was launched by J P Dutta with Refugee in 2000, and in 2009, he stars alongside his father in the AB Corp production, Paa. He also wears a second hat – that of producer.
“I am trained as and used to be a production boy on Mrityudaata and Major Saab during the ABCL days. So to be in the producer’s chair now is a bit weird. But it’s also challenging to be wearing two hats. This is the first time I am working for my dad’s company. After 10 years I have got the honour. I am very happy I took on the stress because Paa has turned out exactly as I wanted it to. You usually envisage a film in a particular way and it either surpasses your expectations or does not match up to them. Paa meets them exactly. At a time when you see some astronomical budgets, I managed to make the film in just Rs 15 crore all inclusive,” Abhishek beams. Did father and son get paid? “Yes we did, but I was miserly with dad and made him take a huge discount!”
Just then a Motorola phone beeps and Abhishek checks the message that comes in on his ‘dad phone’, a dedicated connection between father and son. The other phone, also a Motorola, is the everybody-else phone, including for wife and mother. The only other gadget around is a digital recording device that one assumes is to keep a record of interviews in case of misquotation, or to protect him from controversy. Abhishek denies this.
“I have never been in such a situation. I record my interviews for selfish reasons. When I am 70 and sitting in my rocking chair, I want to hear this interview again. It’s not vanity. I document everything I do. As actors, we lead very privileged lives, see and experience a variety of things. I could keep a diary, but how do I record a public appearance? For instance, I was at an event in a mall in Kolkata recently where almost 10,000 people showed up and the mall had to be shut. I have that on video because this memory of people’s love for you is worth preserving.”
Person to person
You wonder if Abhishek has ever known a life out of the spotlight. He explains that celebrity status is not only thrust upon you by fans and the media; it also comes from an awareness of your responsibility towards your fêted parents.
He says, “Although I was just another student in Switzerland and the United States, I was acutely aware of whose son I was. There are a lot of Indians everywhere and many watch Indian films. I was very conscious of my responsibility towards my family. Also, I have never been a party animal who wants to do stupid things and behave badly. Having said that, unlike today, in the mid ’90s it was still possible to go places unrecognised.”
Today, when Indian cinema and its stars have become global exports, this privacy is rare. Yet, the Guru and Dostana actor says he does “normal” things like go to Mumbai’s Worli Seaface for bhutta. “My dad used to take me as a kid. I still go with dad.” Crowds don’t hassle them, he says. “People approach us and ask for autographs which is fine. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing has to change depending on how you approach your fame. You can do whatever you want. You can go to the cinema and watch a movie with the audience, but if you walk in with 50 bodyguards who push people out of the way, you will be noticed. If you go in after the lights go down and quietly leave, it will be fine. What will happen? They will shake your hand, say good job or bad job, ask for an autograph. You make films for the audience and then you want to run away from them. I don’t understand that and I don’t understand actors who don’t like to be photographed, etc.”
In a business where the private nicknames of star children – like Dugu, Gattu, Bebo, Baba – seem to have become public property, Abhishek Bachchan has got away with the far-less embarrassing tags of ‘AB’ and ‘Junior’. But he has also been dubbed the brat of the film industry, a title he finds incomprehensible just as much as his reputation of being a ‘prankster’ baffles him.
“I have never understood this label of ‘prankster’. I don’t think I have ever pulled a prank on anyone. If you have ever worked with Sunil Shetty or Ajay Devgan, then you know what pranks are. You are never safe when they are on set,” says Abhishek. “I just have a lot of fun and am very hyper. I need a casual atmosphere when I work. I cannot work if things are tense.”
But he cannot shake off the brat tag easily. As the son of superstar parents, AB Junior is to the manor born. He claims he is the same person he has always been. “I don’t think I have changed at all since I was a kid. But I have no idea why people say I am a brat. I like to think they say it in a nice, loving way. I do like to have fun. I have never understood why filmmaking should be like going to school. I look forward to going to work every morning and I hope my colleagues feel the same and look forward to working with me.”