Kamal Ghorui
Abhishek Bachchan — just saying the name brings with it a flood of narratives and opinions, not all positive. There’s clearly a lot of noise, both kind and cutting. He endured a string of flops after his debut ‘Refugee’ before finally tasting success with ‘Dhoom’. His filmography does include its share of forgettable outings. But it also boasts performances in ‘Guru’, ‘Sarkar’, ‘Yuva’, ‘Bunty Aur Babli’, ‘Dostana’ and, more recently, ‘Manmarziyaan’, ‘Breathe: Into The Shadows’, ‘I Want To Talk’, ‘Housefull 5’ and ‘Kaalidhar Laapata’. While opinions on his work remain divided, his personal life has constantly been under the scanner, surrounded by narratives and fictional stories spun endlessly on the internet. Yet, here is a man who, in the face of failure and negativity, remains firmly rooted in his truth and reality — fully aware of the privilege of being Amitabh Bachchan’s son, but exeuding silent confidence in the fact that he has survived 25 years in the industry on his own merit and can say, “I’d do a much better job if I do ‘Guru’ now.” Unafazed by the chatter, Abhishek has continued to stay true to himself through the years. As he turns 50 today, he appears to be on a clear path of reinvention. This feels like Abhishek Bachchan 2.0. The actor turns 50 today, February 5, and is spending his day while shooting today, as he mostly prefers to work on his birthday. Opening up on his rebirth as an actor, Abhishek had told ETimes in an earlier interview, “If you’re not going to keep reinventing yourself you’re going to become very boring to the public. If we’re talking 25 years, the youth that is going to watch the movies today wasn’t even born when I debuted. The largest segment of the audience is I think between 17 and 25. So the majority of them weren’t even born when I started. So I was already around and working when they were born and growing up. So I’m not their contemporary. The people who were the youngsters same age as me when I debuted are all parents today, some are grandparents. People who were acting and were seniors of mine when I debuted, some are still around some are not. The ones that are around still, you see them and analyse that they can have this kind of an inning because they are re-inventing themselves constantly. They are hungry. It’s very important. How many of my colleagues who were starting off around the time I was starting off, how many of them are still active actors today? Not many, a handful.” But how has he not ever gotten cynical through the criticism and negativity? “Of course, you get cynical. It’s very difficult not to when on a weekly basis you’re failing publicly and it’s being rubbed in your face and people are deriving great pleasure by rubbing it in your face. So you get cynical, but you have to try your best to not remain cynical or be bitter about it. I’m not the kind of person who gets bitter. I’m always the kind of person who looks at the brighter side of life. I do think that life served me well most times and sometimes, it doesn’t serve me well and that’s all right.” When asked if his parents are proud of him, he had said, “I think my father and mother would be proud of anything that I do, provided they know that I’ve given it my best. People forget he’s also a father. For us, Amitabh Bachchan is a hero. So, we never look at it from that lens, but he’s also a family man! He’s a father, he’s a grandfather. For some reason we think, ‘Oh no, he’s not allowed to be that or be human’, but he is. He’s also a father, and my mother is also a mother. I’m their child. They’re allowed to feel the way every other parent would feel.” On work front, Abhishek will be seen in Shah Rukh Khan‘s ‘King’ next. Though, an official announcement on this hasn’t yet been made.
