Abhishek Bachchan says failing publicly humiliating, sometimes people take pleasure in seeing you fail

Abhishek Bachchan opens up on being Amitabh Bachchan’s son, the pressure of being a star kid and how difficult the initial phase of his career was in an honest interview.

Abhishek Bachchan opened up about handling pressure of a star kid and how he handles the weight which comes with his surname in an honest interview. Speaking to filmmaker Shoojit Sircar for The Telegraph in Kolkata, Abhishek said he learnt early on his career that it would be “inhuman to carry the burden of that pressure; anyone will get crushed under it.”

Abhishek Bachchan opens up on how his career has shaped up and carrying the weight of Bachchan surname.

Talking about criticism and his reaction to it, Abhishek said, “It destroys me and I want it to destroy me. I would stick up my movie reviews on my bathroom mirror and highlight all the portions that said how bad I was... I would see my films almost every day. I am not a megalomaniac, I do it for educational purposes.”

He said he faced a lot of hardship at the beginning of his career. “Failing publicly is humiliating and sometimes, people take pleasure in seeing you fail. I faced a lot of hardships at the beginning of my career — I would get thrown out of films, replaced, I wouldn’t be paid what was contracted. I slowly realised that it’s a business and you just have to pull up your socks and keep carrying on.”

Abhishek Bachchan with father Amitabh Bachchan, mother Jaya, wife Aishwarya and daughter Aaradhya.

He said he was shooting the first scene of his debut Refugee and over 2000-3000 people had come to watch Amitabh Bachchan’s son. “The scene began and I started pouring water into a jerrycan and had to look up and say my line. The shot went on forever — I finished pouring all the water — and no one said ‘Cut’. JP saab looked at me and said, ‘And?’ And I was like, ‘What?’ He was like, ‘Where’s the rest of the dialogue?’ I had no idea what he was talking about. I was then told that I had a three-page soliloquy after the first line, which I had completely switched off from!,” he said.

Abhishek said he completely lost it after that and gave 17 retakes. He could imagine Dutta calling his father and telling him it was all a huge mistake. He said he was worried Anupam Kher and other senior actors will say the same.

“That evening as I was driving back to the hotel, it dawned on me that I had spent more energy that day thinking about pressure, perception and what people are going to say vis-a-vis my parents, when actually those energies should have been channelled into doing my job. And I decided that day that I’m never going to think about this,” he added.