#HTCityCheers23: Abhishek Bachchan recalls he signed his first film when he was 23

Actor Abhishek Bachchan says he wasn’t thinking about the pressures he had, living up to his family name, when he started off.

Abhishek Bachchan can never forget his 23rd birthday. After all, the actor had signed on for his first film, Refugee then, directed by JP Dutta.

Actor Abhishek Bachchan’s debut film Refugee released in 2000.

“My 23rd birthday was a long time ago! But I do actually remember it clearly. It was very special. My birthday falls on February 5, and I had signed my first film, Refugee with Mr JP Dutta on February 1. It was a very happy period in my life. I started shooting for it as well. The 23rd year was a very important time in my life. I was sure at 23 I wanted to become an actor,” he recalls fondly. Kareena Kapoor Khan was his co-star in the film, which also marked her acting debut.

The actor, now 46, had a name to live up to, and comparisons were going to be inevitable. Did he feel the pressure early on due to the legacy (he is the son of actors Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan), and how did he manage to overcome it?

He clears, “I decided this literally at the start of my career, after my first day… Because at that point of time I was only thinking what is everybody else going to be thinking, what are they going to say about my father. I realized I had spent my entire day thinking what people are going to be thinking, about the pressures. When I should actually have been spending my entire day concentrating on doing my job. I switched off on the first day itself. I was not going to let this come into my consciousness, because it will take over.”

This is why he decided to focus on only working, otherwise it would have ruined his career even before it gained momentum. “If I was actually going to think about reactions and pressure, that was going to run my life. My job as an actor is that I have to dedicate all my energies and channelise them into doing that, not the other stuff,” Bachchan ends.