event report
october 2017
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Vol. 13
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event report
Editor’s Note Dear Readers, It would be highly presumptuous of me to think I can write an introduction on Amitabh Bachchan, the unrivaled star of Indian cinema and an exemplary human-being in every way. Instead, I will share with you a couple of stories I came across while we were putting this issue together. Though he has many outstanding qualities, the essence of the man shines through these, and they do better justice to him than any kind of analysis might. The first is an incident Anupam Kher shared which can be a lesson for all of us in humility, no matter the heights we scale. In Kher’s own words, “I learnt what humility and discipline was not from any books, but from Mr. Bachchan. I remember the time we were shooting for ‘Aakhree Raasta’ in Chennai. The lights had gone out in the studio and I created a big fuss about it because I believed I was a star, till I saw Mr. Bachchan sitting in a corner wearing a woolen suit, a muffler and sporting a very unruly beard. It was very hot and I timidly went up to him and asked him how he could tolerate the heat. He kept reading a book and said, ‘You will feel hot only if you think it is hot.’ I quietly came back, having learnt a lesson for a lifetime.” The second story goes way back to a day after Rajiv Gandhi, his childhood friend, had been assassinated in Sriperambudur in Chennai. His little son, Rahul, was studying abroad and Amitabh had taken the responsibility of bringing Rahul back home in time for his father’s funeral. They were on a flight to New Delhi and Rahul was resting on Amitabh’s lap. On the same flight was a world renowned photographer who saw this as a great opportunity to click a picture. He was about to shoot when Amitabh stopped him, saying, “Won’t you allow the child to have his moment of grief?” That sent the photographer back to his seat after he had apologized to Amitabh. This sensitivity to others’ feelings and the emphasis on doing the right thing in the right way, at the right time, are qualities that are the need of the hour, not only in the country but the world. And these are also what make Amitabh a truly great artiste, whose charisma transcends time. As the world wishes him on his 75th birthday, enjoy reading all about Mr. Bachchan, an icon who will be remembered eternally.
Atul Shah Editor and Publisher
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Contents
october 2017 FEATURES 10 a legend is born These lines were penned by Amitabh’s father, when his son was born. 11 “ BACHCHANAMA” Mr Bachchan is an inspiration for millions, but who and what inspires him? His father, the renowned poet, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan. 12 E arly Learnings from his Parents Amitabh’s parents were the first superstars he knew and their ideas have always been a strong influence in his life. 16 A Bumpy Beginning A serendipitous coincidence led the young Bachchan to quit his first job in Calcutta and make a trip to Bombay to try his luck. 20 AB’s special bond with Goa Goa has an otherworldly, magical quality to it, according to Bachchan who began his career in its idyllic settings. 22 W HEN AMITABH GOT REJECTED FOR HIS LOOKS There may be no door in the world that won’t open for him now, but he started as most of us do, knocking on doors, one at a time. 24 T he “AB department” There were so many that came to K.A Abbas, hoping that he would make them superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, that an exclusive department was set up in the director’s office! 26 a friendship that turned into a partnership for life
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Jaya Bhaduri was already a known name in the industry when she met Amitabh Bachchan and predicted against popular opinion that he would make it big in Bollywood someday. 28 Dee war - When the ‘lambu hero’ became a Don Amitabh’s series of flops in the beginning was followed by a series of superhits after. His position as the topmost actor was sealed with the release of ‘Deewar’. 30 The Making of Sholay Shatrughan Sinha might have played Jai and Amitabh wanted to play Gabbar... 36 T he Stage-Show Trend – Another ‘First’ That Amitabh Started Anandji of Ananji-Kalyanji fame remembers how the idea for Bollywoodthemed stage shows first occurred to them, while celebrating the success of ‘Muqaddar ka Sikandar’ 38 “ This is Amitabh Bachchan speaking…” From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, there must be no one who cannot recognise that deep baritone... 40 “ Lights, Camera, Action for as long as I live” A dynamic force unto himself, Amitabh derives his energy from work and says it’s not over till it’s over. 42 Knocking on Dilip Kumar’s door at midnight Young, excited and intoxicated, Amitabh, Salim and Javed dared to do the unthinkable. 44 “I ALWAYS TREATED HIM LIKE AN
ELDER BUT HE…” Amitabh Bachchan’s tribute to the prolific filmmaker and gentle soul S. Ramanathan who directed him in his first ‘commercial’ lead role and later in many others. 46 Amitabh, Rekha And Their OneTime War With The Press! Reams upon reams have been written about them, but there was a time when it became just too much. 50 a ratty affair When Amitabh spent three hours catching a rat in his office. 52 Two of his favourite women In a career spanning more than 40 years, Mr Bachchan has worked with some supremely talented and beautiful women. Who then does he admire the most? n AB and Madhuri came 54 Whe together for a photoshoot Amitabh wondered why she would like to shoot with an ‘old man’, while she wondered why he would like to shoot with her, ‘a fan of his’, at all. 56 Whe n Amitabh was declared ‘clinically dead’ The nation was on tenterhooks when Amitabh who was their invincible hero, had a near fatal accident during one of his film-shoots... 58 ‘The day I was dead’ – In AB’s own words Mr Bachchan’s reply to a letter describing what he went through on that fateful day of the ‘Coolie’ accident and that Smita Patil had had a premonition... 64 Birthday Celebrations – Then and Now From a quiet affair to an open house to a nationwide festival, Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday has always been an event to look forward to. 68 A Four Decade Old Fan Ritual From celebrity admirers like Madhuri Dixit and Lata Mangeshkar to the common people, the Big B’s fan list stretches into millions...
70 The Bachchan Bouquets Bachchan’s tall, rose bouquets are now a well-known symbol of his appericiation, in Bollywood. 72 BIRTHDAY WISHES, FROM OLD FRIENDS AND NEW 74 If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try Try Again The several failures and rejections that the Big B has faced, make his phenomenal success story only sweeter. 76 A Master Performer in Every Way He may have passed from ‘angry young man’ roles to benign salt and pepper ones, but his gaze is still as intense and his performances as power-packed. 78 That’s What Friends are For Baghban, an old story that might have been made with Dilip Kumar and Bhoothnath, a lesson in friendship, by the Big B. 80 B ACHCHAN’S VERY MUSICAL SIDE Sujata Majumdar writes about some popular songs sung by Amitabh Bachchan, which have become milestones in the history of Hindi film music. 82 A mitabh in Bhojpuri films Yes, the Big B has acted in a couple of superhit Bhojpuri films, and that too with wife Jaya Bachchan. 84 A Man of Words and Ideals Amitabh Bachchan’s thoughts on a father-daughter relationship and advice to his grand-daughters. 86 M an on Several Missions There is no need for him to do it, he does it because he must, and for no other reason, it seems. 88 Beh ind the scenes Bachchan’s long-lasting relationships with his helpers and their loyalty towards him reveals more about his persona than mere words can.
90 H e is Human, After All The Big B is known for his disciplined lifestyle, but few know that he is asthmatic or that only 25 percent of his liver is functional. 92 AMITABH, The Writer Bachchan is a gifted writer. This article written by Amitabh Bachchan, first appeared in the December 1963 issue of the Sherwoodian, Bachchan’s school magazine. 96 The Bachchan Blog For those who don’t yet follow Mr Bachchan’s writings, here are some of his reflections which he diligently shares on his blog. 102 Lesser known facts about AB 104 Down Memory Lane Ali Peter John reminisces some of the many memorable moments he spent with the superstar. 108 AMITABH BACHCHAN –THE ETERNAL LIGHT Bachchan’s starpower has attained mythic proportions as he continues to be a ‘one man industry’ an epithet given to him by French Director, Francois Truffaut. Pradeep Chandra attempts to understand the phenomenon. 112 A H! TO WATCH A TRAIN GO BY... Working on the Gujarat Tourism campaign became a once in a lifetime opportunity to interact with the Big B for Kirti Thakar. 114 KBC: THE SHOW THAT RESURRECTED BACHCHAN Naysayers had already pooh - poohed the idea of a super star like Amitabh ‘stooping’ to television. 17 years after KBC started, Amitabh continues to prove them all wrong... 116 C OMING SOON... Mr Bachchan reinvents himself yet again, with ‘Thugs of Hindostan’.
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a legend is born These lines were penned by Amitabh's father, when his son was born
Courtesy: Pradeep Chandra
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“BACHCHANAMA” Mr Bachchan is an inspiration for millions, but who and what inspires him? His father, the renowned poet, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan
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ot everyone can have a great poet like Dr. Harivanshrai Bachchan as a father to encourage and inspire his son to keep trying till victory is at hand. At seventyfive, Amitabh remains the greatest fan of his father about whom he says, “He was a poet far ahead of his times. Every poem of his is still relevant today and will always be. I may admire many other legends but there is no one I admire as much as my father”. For Amitabh who as a struggling artiste faced a most painful struggle and much humiliation, it was his father’s poems that kept him going. Today, he can recite the entire Madhushaala in one sitting. At a prominent corner in his house, “Prateeksha”, there is
AGNEEPATH Tu na thakega kabhi Tu na thamega kabhi Kar shapath, kar shapath, kar shapath Agneepath, agneepath, agneepath Yeh mahaan drushya hai Chal raha manushya hai Ashru shuvet rakt se Lathpath, lathpath, lathpath Agneepath, agneepath, agneepath
a specially designed book rack only for his father’s books. The edges of the pages of every book are goldembossed and this entire collection is aptly called “Bachchanama”. Amitabh made it a point to accommodate his father’s poems in some meaningful films, “Agneepath” and “Main Azaad Hoon” being two of them. He even took time off to make them known in different parts of the world and flew to countries like France, America and the Gulf countries to participate in special programmes arranged to honour his father. Here are two of the Big B’s favourite poems from his father’s repertoire:
KOSHISH KARNEWALO KI KABHI HAAR NAHI HOTI Lahron se darkar nauka paar nahi hoti Koshish karne walon ki kabhi haar nahi hoti Nanhi chiti jab daana lekar chalti hai Chadhti dewaaron par sau baar fisalti hai Man ka vishwas ragon mein saahas bharta hai Chadhkar gir na, gir kar chadhna na akharta hai Aakhir uski mehnat bekaar nahi hoti Koshish karne walon ki kabhi haar nahi hoti Dubkiya sindhu mein gotakhor lagaata hai Jaa jaa kar khaali haath lautkar aata hai Milte nahi sahaj hi moti gahare paani mein Barta dugna vishwaas issi heyrani mein. Muthi uski khaali har baar nahi hoti. Koshish karne walon ki kabhi haar nahi hoti… Asafalta ek chunoti hai sawikaar karo. kya kami reh gayi dekho or sudhar karo. Jab tak na safal ho neend chain ko tyago tum. Sangharshon ka maidan chhor na bhago tum. Kuch kiye bina hi jai jai kaar nahi hoti. Koshish karne walon ki kabhi haaroctober nahi hoti..2017 n Feelings
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Early Learnings from his Parents Amitabh’s parents were the first superstars he knew and their ideas have always been a strong influence in his life
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he Bachchans were living in a small, middleclass house in those days. Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan used to go for his morning walk regularly before he came back, had his breakfast and tea and then sat down to write. The family was surprised to see a boulder outside their door one morning and wondered how it happened
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to be there. The secret was out some time later. Dr. Bachchan had seen the boulder during his walk and for some reason had decided that he would take it home. It seemed an impossible task, but he had faith in his own will power and decided to put all his strength together to push the boulder bit by bit, every morning. This exercise continued for several mornings
and was kept a secret from the family. He was happy with the progress he was making with each passing day and did not rest till he had finally brought the boulder home. It was this determination to do things that impressed his young son, Amitabh, the most about his father. Later in the day, Dr. Bachchan used to sit on a simple wooden chair and table and write for several hours together. He had a glass of warm water on the table into which he dipped his fingers when they ached and gave him trouble, and then got back to writing. The young Amitabh accompanied his father to all the kavi sammelans and mushairas held all over North India and he realized how thousands and even lakhs of people gathered only to listen to his father reciting poetry. He saw how they went into a trance whenever he recited some of his most popular lines, which the audience loved to listen to again and again. Such incidents in the life of his father made a deep impression on Amitabh. He was not sure about what he would be in life, but he knew it could be worth it only if he would be able to be at least a little like his father. Years later when Amitabh became a superstar, he said the crowds he had attracted were nothing compared to those that came to listen to his father’s poetry. Talking about his father, he once said, “I have seen my father’s stardom as a poet and I can in no way be compared to him. I may be a star or superstar for some time, but my father will be a superstar for me for all time.” Amitabh’s mother also made an equally strong impression on him. Teji Bachchan belonged to an aristocratic Punjabi family. She fell in love with the poet Dr. Bachchan and they married though he could not afford the kind of life she was used to living. Mrs. Bachchan changed her own ways to suit the ways of her husband, who was richer in many more ways. She preferred to stay in the shadow of her husband and look after her family even as she found time to give expression to her talent as an actress. It was perhaps the first ‘acting’ influence on Amitabh, when she performed in Shakespeare’s plays like Othello and Hamlet, in which Amitabh too had prominent roles.
Mrs. Bachchan also took care to see that her sons did not adopt the wrong ways in life and instilled in them basic values of right and wrong. In fact, it was she who brought up both her sons almost single-handedly because their father was mostly out for his meetings, ‘kavi sammelans’ and ‘mushairas’. Dr. Bachchan had voluntarily left all the responsibilities of his home and sons in his wife’s capable hands. She made it a point to see that they were well educated and also made sure they participated in all kinds of sports and extracurricular activities, including in amateur plays. One of the most important things she taught them was never to accept defeat from anyone, however powerful, if they were in the right and had not hurt or harmed anyone delibrately. Mrs. Bachchan’s sons and even husband had learnt to accept her decisions on most matters. Amitabh once talked about how when one of them came home beaten up by their friends, she did not allow him to sit down and lick his wounds, and instead asked him to go and fight back, beat the boys and come back victorious. She did not want her sons to be ‘Mummy’s boys’ even though it was she who was training them to grow up as men of the world.
“I have seen my father’s stardom as a poet and I can in no way be compared to him.” In Amitabh’s own words, he gives her all the credit for not just his success but that of the whole Bachchan family, “I must say that I was very fortunate to have a mother like her. They talk about women power today, but I feel that if there was a woman who was a symbol of woman power, it was my mother. I think she had proved how strong she was when she who belonged to a rich, aristocratic Punjabi family decided to take a bold step and marry a Hindi poet like my father who like most other Hindi poets was paid a pittance for their work. My mother who was used to living a comfortable life of the rich took very little time to adjust to the position, lifestyle and the standing of a poet like my father. His work was more important to her and she was willing to stand by him under all circumstances. She was also the ideal mother. She took all the care to see that her sons Ajitabh and me
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lacked nothing when it came to our education. In fact, she was the first to see the actor in me and worked with me when I was a boy in some of the plays of Shakespeare, which were translated by my father. It gave me the confidence to think of making acting my career one day. She was also very special when it came to celebrating festivals like Diwali and Holi. She made it a point to see that the celebrations at home were in keeping with the finances of the family. She played an active part in my growth as a human being and an actor right up to the end. She made me a very staunch believer in God and it was she who saw that I had a temple in my first bungalow, where she made me pray every morning before leaving for work. She loved life and all that made life lovable till the end. I can never forget how she wanted to be a part of the Holi celebrations when they were with me at “Prateeksha” even though she was old and in bad health. She is the foundation of the life of the Bachchans and I would be lying if I denied her this humble honour from a son who will always be grateful to her for all that she has done for the Bachchan family.” Amitabh’s parents did not object when he took up a job as a junior executive in Calcutta and they had no objection when he decided to try his luck as an actor. He was the best son his parents could have. He was their little ‘Munna’ till the very end who took personal care of all their old age problems. He took the first supersonic jet from whichever corner of the world he was in as soon as he knew about one of his parents falling sick. He never left ‘Prateeksha’ without praying at the temple inside and then seeking the blessings of his parents. On occasions when he was too busy and forgot to pray, it was either his mother or his father who called out to him and pulled him back, saying, “Seek God’s blessings and then leave.” Amitabh took very good care of his Babuji and Maaji while they were alive and gave them a dignified and loving farewell that he believed they deserved. He got the authorities to open up a private crematorium which was lying unused for years to cremate them, just to avoid the crowds which were only interested in Amitabh and all the other stars who would be attending their funerals.
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“She is the foundation of the life of the Bachchans and I would be lying if I denied her this humble honour from a son who will always be grateful to her for all that she has done for the Bachchan family.” On a personal note, I experienced one of the greatest moments in my career on the lawns of ‘Prateeksha’. There was a huge gathering of bigwigs like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Amar Singh and the cream of the industry, meeting over high tea. Amitabh was very busy playing the perfect host. I knew that the English translation of Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s book had recently released and forgetting the importance of the occasion, I asked Amitabh if I could get a copy of the book. He could easily have said he would do it later, but he did something I still find unbelievable. He excused himself and disappeared into the house. A few minutes later he was bringing his ailing father down in a wheelchair. He brought him close to where I was standing. His father had a copy of the book titled ‘In The Afternoon Of Life’ in his lap. He then introduced me to Dr. Bachchan and said, “Yeh Ali hai, hamaare ghanisht mitr hai, inko aapki nayi kitaab chaahiye.” He opened the book and the eighty-four year old Dr. Bachchan signed his name in Hindi with a fountain pen. The hand was steady and the signature so very clear. It was difficult to believe that Dr. Bachchan had given me an autographed book of his. Today, it occupies a prominent place among my books and I will surely not lend it to anyone as long as I live. n
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A Bumpy Beginning
A serendipitous coincidence led the young Bachchan to quit his first job in Calcutta and make a trip to Bombay to try his luck
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tall, young man with long hair and another young man had climbed up five floors to meet Abbas Sahab. They had come all the way from Calcutta on the recommendation of actor Tinu Anand who was also an assistant of Abbas Sahab. Tinu was supposed to play the ‘seventh Indian’ in Abbas Sahab’s film, ‘Saat Hindustani. Among the other six actors who were finalized were Utpal Dutt from West Bengal and Madhu from Kerala. But Tinu was also in a hurry to make it as a director. It was Abbas Sahab himself and Tinu’s father, the renowned and highest paid writer of Hindi films, Inder Raj Anand, who had written letters to their illustrious filmmaker-friends like Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Satyajit Ray to take on Tinu as one of their assistants. All their friends wrote back at the same time saying that they were willing to accept Tinu as their assistant. Tinu opted to be the twelfth assistant of Ray and was getting ready to go to Calcutta. He was however very scared of telling Abbas Sahab about his decision because there were just four days left for the shooting of ‘Saat Hindustani’ to start in Goa. Tinu was familiar with Abbas Sahab’s temper and as expected, the director was furious when Tinu told him about it. He said that it was
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impossible and he would certainly not let Tinu join Ray unless he found an instant replacement for himself. Tinu was at a loss but an idea struck him at the last minute. He fished out from his purse the photograph of a young man which was given to him by a friend from Delhi. She had told Tinu that the young man belonged to a very influential family and had a junior executive’s job in an established firm in Calcutta but was interested in acting in Hindi films. She further asked Tinu to recommend him to some filmmakers in Bombay. Tinu showed the photograph to Abbas Sahab and without giving it a second look, the latter said, “Acting aati hai kya isko? Haan, jo bhi hai bulaa lo usko aur bolna ki hum third class ka one way ticket denge.” Tinu who was desperate, immediately got in touch with the young man and that is how Amitabh with his elder brother found himself in Abbas Sahab’s office in North Bombay Housing Society in Juhu. Abbas Sahab had no time to ask the young man many questions and was satisfied with his unusual height, looks and his voice. Amitabh told him that he was drawing a monthly salary of rupees three and a half thousand and Abbas Sahab told him that he would be paid rupees five thousand for doing the entire
film and would have to live in a dormitory with all the artists and technicians, sharing the same meals. The brothers looked at each other and agreed. Abbas Sahab’s ever so efficient secretary, Abdul Rehman, was typing out the agreement, when Abbas Sahab who now knew the young man’s name got curious and asked them if they were by any chance related to the poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and they instantly nodded. Abbas Sahab asked his secretary to stop typing the agreement and said he would have to ask his friend if he had given his permission for his son to try his luck in films. He dialled his number in Delhi and screamed (that is how he normally spoke when he was under pressure), “Arre suno, Bachchan, yahaan mere paas do ladke khade hai, ek jo lambaa hai usse actor banna hai, kya tumne usko permission di hai?” Harivansh Rai Bachchan from the other side said, “Abbas Sahab, agar aap usko apni film mein le rahe ho toh mujhe isse badi khushi nahi hogi”. Their conversation ended and Amitabh signed his first ever film, ‘Saat Hindustani’. Like all of Abbas Sahab’s films it did fairly well, but more importantly, the new actor, Amitabh Bachchan had been recognised and he even went on to win his first National Award for the best supporting actor. Amitabh signed his second film, ‘Anand’, for seven thousand rupees, after director Hrishikesh Mukherjee, a close friend of Abbas Sahab saw him in ‘Saat Hindustani’. With Rajesh Khanna, the ruling superstar in the title role, the film turned out to be a cult film, and Amitabh managed to make a very distinct mark. The next film he signed was ‘Bombay To Goa’ directed by S. Raamnathan and produced by Mehmood. Anwar, Mehmood’s brother who acted as the bus conductor in the film, and Amitabh became very good friends during the film’s shoot. They were such good friends that Anwar asked Mehmood to give the new actor a place to live in his bungalow. Mehmood not only agreed to that but supported him by recommending him to all his producer and director friends. There were times when Anwar even lent his best clothes to Amitabh.
Aruna Irani, the heroine of the film says, “I was only a small time actress and dancer when I was chosen to play his heroine in “Bombay To Goa”, because no other actress was willing to work with him. It is almost fifty years now and he still respects me like a great actress. I feel very humbled. It is a great feeling because I had seen how even ordinary spot boys and workers used to make fun of him saying, “is lambu ka kuch nahi ho sakta”. Amitabh slowly got other offers, but all of his first eight films in which he was the leading man failed miserably. When the last one, ‘Bandhe Haath’ made by O.P Ralhan in which the reigning leading lady, Mumtaz, who was considered a lucky mascot also flopped, he decided to pack up and leave for Calcutta. It was Anwar Ali who pleaded with him not to give up and convinced Amitabh to change his mind and stay, which he thankfully did. The next film he did was ‘Zanjeer’ which is now a part of modern film history. How that happened is another story but in the words of the director Prakash Mehra, “I was under the greatest tension on the day the film was released. Amitabh Bachchan was a nobody when the first show started at twelve noon. At three pm he was the next superstar who became known as the angry young man.” Amitabh repaid his debt of gratitude to Anwar when he agreed to be the leading man in Anwar’s first film as a producer, ‘Khuddar’ with Parveen Babi as the leading lady. The film directed by Ravi Tandon (father of Raveena Tandon) was a big hit. Anwar did not make any other film after that. When asked why not, he said, “Arre yaar jisne Amitabh ke saath ek hit film banayee, usko zindagi bhar kaam karne ki kya zaroorat hai?” Anwar has been a regular at all the happenings in the Bachchan family. Anwar later wrote a book based on his friendship with Amitabh called “Amitabh and I”. The book was released by Amitabh at Tiwari Brothers in Juhu, a sweetshop they used to frequent together in the early days. n
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AB’s special bond with Goa Goa has an otherworldly, magical quality to it, according to Bachchan who began his career in its idyllic settings.
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achchan has a very old bond with Goa, one that started forming right at the beginning of his career. His very first film, ‘Saat Hindustani’ written and directed by K.Abbas was entirely shot in Goa, where he lived with the film’s unit in a dormitory and was paid a grand sum of rupees five thousand for the whole film. ‘Bombay to Goa’, his first film as the leading man with Aroona Irani, directed by S.Ramanathan and produced by the comedian Mehmood and N.C Sippy, further strengthened the Goa connection. The next film he shot in Goa was when he had become a very big star. The film was called ‘The Great Gambler’ directed by Shakti Samanta with Zeenat Aman and Amjad Khan as his co-stars. It was during this time that Amitabh and Amjad who became the best of friends met with a major car accident in which Amjad who was driving was grievously injured, had to spend six months in hospital and never fully recovered since he had put on uncontrollable weight because of the steroids he had to take. He finally succumbed to a massive heart attack. His death had a very strong impact on Amitabh who gave up drinking and smoking and turned into a complete vegetarian. The next time Amitabh was in Goa was for the shooting of another big film called ‘Pukaar’, produced and directed by one of his best friends, Ramesh Behl
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(father of producer Shrishti Behl and director Goldie Behl). The entire film was shot on a huge set built in Goa. The subject dealt with the story of the clash between the Portuguese who were ruling Goa and the fight put up by the freedom fighters of Goa. Zeenat Aman, Randhir Kapoor and Tina Munim starred with Amitabh in the film which took a month to shoot. The families of Amitabh and Behl kept visiting them every weekend. It was the first time I saw Abhishek and Shweta as little babies and also Shrishti and Goldie. It was the first big film Amitabh was shooting for, after the ‘Coolie’ accident. I still remember how the Goans who had rarely shown much interest in Hindi films, had almost declared a holiday for people to see Amitabh, who one of the priests of the Catholic Church in Goa called “One of the greatest miracles worked by God in modern times when people have stopped believing in miracles...” Amitabh has been visiting Goa whenever he has the time or has to attend some meeting, seminar or conference. Goa is a place that attracts him like no other even though he has visited almost every country in the world. “There is an amazing magic about the place which gives you a feeling that you are not of this world but some other much more beautiful and mesmerizing world,” Amitabh says as he keeps making plans and even inspires others working with him to plan as much work as they can, in Goa. n
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WHEN AMITABH GOT REJECTED FOR HIS LOOKS There may be no door in the world that won’t open for him now, but he started as most of us do, knocking on doors, one at a time
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nce while talking about his career, Amitabh said that he did not follow any method when it came to choosing film scripts. Admitting that he was very bad at picking scripts he said, “I just look at the opportunity of getting work. If it is exciting enough for me to play a role, I just do it. Yes, the director has to be one I believe in, but even if it is a new director and if the role is interesting I would do it.” He later said that he would not talk about any of his unsuccessful films and doesn’t regret any of his decisions. “Sometimes we do films because we believe in the person making it, sometimes it is a gesture. I will not deride any film I have done; I will stay with every film I have made.” Unbelievable though it may sound, more than forty years ago, Amitabh Bachchan was just one more struggling actor in the crowd, trying his best to make it even though the odds were stacked against him. It is said that his mother, Mrs Teji Bachchan was a good friend of the then Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi and Mrs Gandhi who was a friend of Nargis and Sunil Dutt asked the Dutts to encourage Mrs Bachchan’s son. The Dutts were only too eager to help Amitabh, but they were too busy and could not take any personal interest. Sunil Dutt, however asked one of his very close friends, Raaj Grover to take Amitabh around and introduce him to some good filmmakers. The first big director Grover took Amitabh to was Mohan Segal, but Segal had no time to even have a look at Amitabh. But he also did not want to disappoint the Dutts. He asked Grover himself to do an audition with Amitabh. Grover gave Amitabh lines from the first love letter he had written and asked
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Amitabh to speak those lines. Amitabh was very good according to Grover. Segal said he would get back, but never did. The next big filmmaker Grover took Amitabh to was Seth Tarachand Barjatya, the founder of the Rajshri empire. The elderly man had a good look at Amitabh and asked him what made him believe that he could be an actor, when he had nothing that was needed to be a hero in Hindi films. He asked him about his background and then in an almost sarcastic tone asked him to forget about being an actor and advised him to try his luck as a football player because of his height and his long legs. Another suggestion he gave Amitabh was that he could make it as a poet like his father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan , especially because of his rich voice. Amitabh was disappointed and even frustrated. Years later though, Amitabh was signed by the Rajshris to play a lungi-wearing toddy-tapper in ‘Saudagar’ with Nutan heading the cast. Amitabh’s sensitive performance however, did not make the right kind of impact. Grover took him to many other directors but not one of them showed any interest. Finally, Sunil Dutt himself decided to cast him in a small role in his film, ‘Reshma Aur Shera’. The film was based on an unusual subject and shot in the deserts of Rajasthan. Dutt headed the cast with Waheeda Rehman and Raakhee. Amitabh played a dumb dacoit [even though Dutt knew that his voice was his strong point]. The film was a major disaster and led Dutt to mortgage his house and brought Amitabh back to square one a struggler trying to find his way, all over again. n
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The ‘AB department’ There were so many that came to K.A. Abbas, hoping that he would make them superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, that an exclusive department was set up in the director’s office!
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.A. Abbas was an expert in finding solutions to problems, not only of his own, but of writers and poets, of society, of the film industry and even the country. He counseled leaders such as Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Mr. V.K Krishna Menon, the first Defence Minister of India who had contested elections from Mumbai. Abbas was at the forefront of the celebrity world that included acting legends like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Sunil Dutt, Nargis, Balraj Sahni and poets
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like Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi and Ali Sardar Jafri. He urged them to take active part in Menon’s election campaign who won the first election with a thumping majority but suffered a very humiliating loss in the second, after which he was wiped out of the political scene. He continued meeting Abbas and Dev Anand though, who he considered his friends and advisors to the end. There were people from all walks of life who sought meetings with Abbas because they knew that he would come up with something to help them even
though he was always neck deep in problems of his own. But he was helpless when it came to solving one particular problem that he had created for himself. He had discovered an unusual actor called Amitabh Bachchan in his film based on the liberation of Goa, ‘Saat Hindustani’. The film like most of his other films failed at the box-office but was appreciated by critics and lovers of good cinema. There were seven actors in the film, but the one who left a distinct mark was his new discovery, Amitabh Bachchan. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, a friend of Abbas saw him in the film and signed him for ‘Anand’ and N.C Sippy who was the producer of ‘Anand’ with Hrishikesh Mukherjee signed him for three films paying him five thousand for ‘Anand’, seven thousand for ‘Bombay to Goa’ and twelve thousand for ‘Parwaana’. Amitabh made his presence felt in all the three and then went on to sign many more films, paving his way slowly but surely to success, especially with ‘Zanjeer’. Stories spread about how Abbas had found him and signed him even without giving him a test, and the problems for Abbas started. There were at least three or four tall young men, their ears covered with hair imitating Amitabh’s hairstyle who reached the office or residence of Abbas every morning. They all wanted Abbas to make them heroes like he had made Amitabh Bachchan. He sometimes lost his patience with them and screamed in his powerful voice, “Arre maine Amitabh Bachchan ko bilkul nahi banaaya, woh apne aap ban gaya.” The young men refused to take his answer. He sometimes lost his temper and asked them his favourite question, “Tumhare kaan kahaan hai?” and the young men who did not understand his famous brand of sarcasm, showed him their ears. He then said, “Haan bas abhi tum jaao. Ab main kya kar sakta hoo, tum toh Amitabh Bachchan ban gaye”. I was his assistant and was paid rupees hundred per month, an amount that was not guaranteed. He tried his best to make good use of me and calling me one morning asked me to take charge of what he called ‘the Amitabh Bachchan department’. He said my job
would be to screen all the men who came to him with the ambition to be the next Amitabh and only send him the men who I found worthy of having a meeting with him. How could I, struggling to discover myself, have passed judgment on these men who came from different parts of India? The truth was that none of those men had anything in common with Amitabh other than their height and hairstyles. All of them were more than six feet tall and had their ears covered with long, well-oiled hair. I gave up this challenge pretty fast and Abbas disbanded the office headed by me and instead told me to make synopses of novels, especially those written by James Hadley Chase, for a writer-friend who based most of his scripts on these. I was paid rupees twenty five per novel and I started having ‘missal paav’ rather than the ‘usal paav’.
“He said my job would be to screen all the men who came to him with the ambition to be the next Amitabh and only send him the men who I found worthy of having a meeting with him.” Amitabh never worked with Abbas again and once when there was a festival of K.A. Abbas Films at what was then known as the Akashwaani Auditorium in Mumbai, he had invited Amitabh to be the chief guest. But by now Amitabh had become a very busy, big star and and so his father and friend of Abbas, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan represented him. Abbas who had some illustrious guests at the inauguration was waiting for Amitabh when Dr. Bachchan walked in with a sheepish smile and said, “Munna bahut busy ho gaya hai, iss liye mujhe yahaan bheja gaya hai”. Abbas was quick to retort, “Kyun be Bachchan, bête ke chamche ban gaye ho kya?” The celebrated Dr. Bachchan had no answer because he and everyone who knew Abbas also knew that it was his way of saying that he did not really appreciate what had happened. n
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A Friendship that turned into
a Partnership for Life Amitabh’s initial films with his lucky charm and wife, Jaya Bachchan, did as much good for his career as her belief in his abilities
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on Dharmendra. Dharmendra, who played himself in the film helps her out of her madness for him and encourages her to love Samit Bhanja (an actor from Calcutta, a role for which a struggling actor called Amitabh Bachchan was also considered).
Hrishida who was keen on films that reflected middle class life and values had heard about Jaya being a fan of the superstar, Dharmendra. He saw in their story a story for his film ‘Guddi’ and just as he had promised, he cast Jaya as the school-going girl who has a crush
It was during the shooting of ‘Guddi’ that the two struggling actors Jaya and Amitabh first met. Their meetings became regular, especially at Ranjit Studios in Dadar where the young producer who made meaningful films, Romu Sippy, had his office. The studio was considered an ‘adda’ for all actors who were aiming to reach high. It was also in this office that Amitabh who had done ‘Saat Hindustani’ and ‘Anand’ was signed by the comedian turned producer Mehmood and director S.Raamnathan for ‘Bombay To Goa’, a film that became a turning point in his life and career.
ometime in the seventies, a whole lot of young actors descended on Bombay, the city of dreams, most from the FTII, some from the NSD and some who had no training in acting at all. Among the most brilliant students of the FTII was a petite girl with ponytails who had already caught the attention of filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Gulzar who used to visit the FTII regularly to gauge the talent of the students. Hrishida was so fascinated by the young actress that he promised to cast her in the title role of his next film.
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The first few films that Amitabh signed after ‘Saat Hindustani’ did not fare well at the box-office at all. He however remembered his father’s spirit of determination and kept up his struggle. He continued to be friends with Jaya and they had common friends like Danny Denzongpa, Romesh Sharma and Asrani, the FTII professor, who had made it big as a comedian in Hindi films. The young Amitabh visited FTII and observed how students took so much trouble to train themselves as actors. He felt he was a misfit, but it was his new friends who boosted him to carry on, assuring him that he would succeed. Jaya especially, was convinced right from the beginning that the man she was falling in love with was going to make it big one day. She had already gained fame as an actress on an all- India level when she agreed to work with Amitabh in films like ‘Bansi Birju’ and ‘Ek Nazar’. They later teamed up in many other films which also did not do well. This was until Jaya Bhaduri was signed for a film called ‘Zanjeer’ for which the filmmaker was not getting the right hero, only because there were no songs in the film. Jaya who was now in love with Amitabh and was in a position to recommend a hero, asked the filmmaker to try Amitabh Bachchan. Her recommendation was backed by veteran actors Pran and Om Prakash who had seen what they called the ‘fire’ in Amitabh. Though Amitabh’s parents had reservations about him doing such a rank commercial film, he saw it as his one ‘big opportunity’. He was signed on to play Vijay, a young, daring and angry police officer. The film was released at a time when Rajesh Khanna was still ruling as the superstar but by the time the first day shows of ‘Zanjeer’ were over, Amitabh had overthrown Rajesh Khanna and was declared “the angry young man” and the new superstar of the industry. Amitabh married Jaya four months before the filming of ‘Sholay’ started, at a very simple ceremony where apart from their parents and close relatives, the only notable guest was Sanjay Gandhi, his childhood friend. The wedding led to some shooting delays for 'Sholay'
Young Jaya was convinced that the man she was in love with was going to make it big one day. Once she was shooting with the reigning superstar Rajesh Khanna for the film ‘Baawarchi’. Amitabh dropped by to see Jaya and Rajesh is said to have passed nasty comments against Amitabh, asking Jaya not to waste her time on him as he had just no chance of making it in films. Jaya did not say anything to the superstar, but told one of the senior journalists around, “The man has lost his head because of his success. Dekhna ek din woh kahaan rahega aur yeh kahaan pahuchega". That line was prophetic because the tables had turned completely in the next few months. Amitabh and Jaya had done ‘Zanjeer’ together and the rest is history. when Bhaduri became pregnant with their first-born, Shweta. By the time of the film's release in 1975, she was expecting Abhishek. Jaya also did 'Abhimaan' with Amitabh and 'Naukar' with Sanjeev Kumar who she considered her brother, before she decided to quit working and look after their home. Amitabh continued to climb the ladder of unprecedented success and with that success came problems, especially the story of his having an affair with Rekha who starred with him in films like ‘Do Anjaane’, ‘Mr. Natwarlal’ and ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar’. The gossip magazines went crazy talking about the affair and Yash Chopra made their story into a film called ‘Silsila’ in which he somehow managed a casting coup of the originals involved in the controversy, to play the very same roles in the movie. Jaya who had taken a break from films made a striking comeback with ‘Silsila’ and soon after that all talk of their affair came to an end. Jaya spent the next ten or twelve years looking after the children and home and all the problems that came with it while Amitabh continued to rule the roost unchallenged. Only when the children were sent to schools abroad, Jaya found the time to come back again as a mature actress in films like ‘Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa’, ‘Fiza’, ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum’(with Amitabh again) and ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ proving that she was still had it in her to deliver a gripping performance . n
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Deewar - When the
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‘lambu hero’ became a Don Amitabh’s series of flops in the beginning was followed by a series of superhits after. His position as the topmost actor was sealed with the release of ‘Deewar’
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t was the time when Yash Chopra and Amitabh Bachchan were thinking about making a romantic film based on the script of one of Yash’s favourite writers. It was also the time when Amitabh had committed his dates for Ramesh Sippy’s ‘Sholay’. It was while the shooting of “Sholay” was being planned that the celebrated team of writers, Salim-Javed who also wrote ‘Sholay’ narrated another subject to Amitabh Bachchan. After giving the story a serious hearing, he was so carried away by the subject that he called Yash Chopra and told him to hold back the film they had been planning and instead make the film based on the story he had just heard. Yash Chopra agreed but he needed a good actor to play the younger brother of Vijay, the character to be played by Amitabh. Yash first approached Rajesh Khanna who was very close to him. It was Rajesh who had helped him to establish his own company, Yash Raj Films with ‘Daag’. Rajesh who always had a kind of complex when it came to Amitabh, right from the days of ‘Anand’ and ‘Namak Haraam’ told Yash that he wanted to play the role of Vijay which Yash said was not possible. Yash then spoke to Navin Nischol who was a popular star, but Navin did not even consider playing the younger brother of Amitabh (Navin had problems working with Amitabh even when Amitabh was a struggler and was playing the
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villain in a film called ‘Parwaana’ in which Navin was the romantic hero). It was Amitabh who suggested the name of Shashi Kapoor and Shashi had no problem with the role of Amitabh’s younger brother, even though he was his senior by several years. And since ‘Deewaar’ Amitabh and Shashi have worked in eighteen films together! Amitabh was now shooting both ‘Sholay’ and the new film ‘Deewaar’ on the same day. He shot for ‘Sholay’ on the specially erected set of ‘Rampur’ in Bangalore and took an evening flight to Bombay to shoot for ‘Deewaar’, all through the night mostly on locations and also sets. The other artists in ‘Deewaar’, Shashi, Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy, Madan Puri and Iftikhar had to make adjustments to shoot with Amitabh for ‘Deewaar’. The film was based on the character of Haji Mastan, one of the most wellknown smugglers and underworld dons of Bombay. ‘Deewaar’ released soon after ‘Sholay’ and Amitabh became the dominating superstar or the ‘number one to ten star of the industry’. The biggest compliment to Amitabh who had won almost every award for his fiery performance in ‘Deewar’ came from Haji Mastan, the don himself who saw the film several times and told his close friends, “Yeh lambu ne toh mere ko badaa hero banaa diya, bahot aage jaayega yeh lambu hero”. n
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The Making of
Sholay Shatrughan Sinha might have played Jai and Amitabh wanted to play Gabbar...
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t was some forty years ago. Amitabh Bachchan had just had his first taste of success with ‘Zanjeer’ starring him, Jaya Bhaduri and Pran. The film was a huge hit and Amitabh was waiting to build on it. It was also when the most successful duo of writers, Salim-Javed were writing the script of a film they wanted to call ‘Sholay’ which was to be directed by Ramesh Sippy. Amitabh who was friends
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with the two writers who had recommended him for the role in ‘Zanjeer’ got a whiff of what the film was all about and asked his friends to recommend him as one of the actors to Ramesh Sippy. To make matters further pucca, he also met Dharmendra who was already signed to play one of the two friends in the story. Amitabh’s perseverance
worked and he was signed to play the dost, Jai, of Dharmendra who was to play Veeru. The writers took their time to give the finishing touches to their script which some time later was said to be an Indian version of a cowboy western, also called a curry western. It had heavy doses of scenes from some of the best films of the world like Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’, John Sturges’ ‘The Magnificent Seven’ and Sergei Leone’s ‘It Happened In The West’. Soon Dharmendra and Amitabh had other stars for company, actors like Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri besides a number of other important characters. There was a bit of a struggle to find the right actor to play the dacoit, Gabbar Singh. For some time there was talk about the popular villain Danny Denzongpa being considered for the role, but there were date hassles in his case. For a while Amitabh himself was rather interested in playing Gabbar Singh, but director Ramesh Sippy had his own choice. He had seen Amjad Khan, the younger son of the veteran villain of the sixties, Jayant, in a couple of plays and found him apt to play Gabbar Singh. His choice created a flutter for this villain had to fight giants like Dharmendra, Amitabh and Sanjeev Kumar and had to look like the chief (Sardar) of the dacoits. There was talk about his having a very weak voice unsuited to a dangerous and diabolic villain, apart from other flaws, but Ramesh Sippy had full faith in his discovery. An elaborate set of an entire village with the hills in the backdrop (where Gabbar Singh and his men lived) was created on the outskirts of Bangalore. This too was going off the beaten track when it came to shooting an action film on such a big scale, because such films were usually shot on location in the deserts of Rajasthan or the ravines of Madhya Pradesh. The set erected by art director Ram Yedekar (some say it was M.S Shinde) became the talk of the industry because of its likeness to reality and many tourists and even locals flocked to the village called Rampur to have a glimpse of the stars and the famous set. The film was shot over a period of two and a half years. The action and all the stunts were supervised
by some of the best stunt co-ordinators from U.K. It had been decided to shoot the film in 70mm which was another first for a Hindi film. The sound mixing was done in the best recording studios in the UK at that time. The fortieth year of the release of ‘Sholay’ was observed in many places by different organisations and lovers of cinema, especially fans of ‘Sholay’ itself,
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but it was Amitabh Bachchan who celebrated the moment with the press, by going down memory lane. Some of the information provided by me comes from a talk Amitabh had with the media. He talked about the camaraderie shared by entire unit during the making of the film and how everyone loved to be on the sets for long hours even after the shooting was over for the day. He made a special mention of his friendship with Amjad Khan who called him “Shorty” and the unit referred to the two friends as ‘Lambaai Chaudaai’. He also talked about how there was talk of his role being played by Shatrughan Sinha, before he came into the picture. And he remembered the contribution made by every man and woman who had worked on the film including Leela Mishra, Jagdeep, Asrani and Dwarka Divecha. He was all praise for Dharmendra as his co-star who even slept at night in the compound of the set on a charpoy. He talked about the time when he and Dharmendra travelled in the same car and when they were caught in the middle of a huge crowd which did not recognise him, but went berserk when they saw Dharmendra. They decided to escape by getting into an auto to reach their destination. He remembered August 15, 1975 when ‘Sholay’ premiered at Minerva Talkies in Mumbai. The entire industry was invited and the film was shown in the 35mm format because the 70mm print could not
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reach the theatre in time. It led to people having a very poor opinion about the film. The first two days after the release were dark and dismal as the film was given up as a flop. The two writers, Salim and Javed, Ramesh Sippy and Amitabh had an emergency meeting at Amitabh’s house to decide on how to save the film. It was felt that Jai’s death (Amitabh) was a major weak point. Also the character of the widow in white, Radha (Jaya Bhaduri) showing her weakness for Jai may not have seemed acceptable to the audience and above all they were given to believe that Amjad Khan was not acceptable as Gabbar Singh. The four men thought of going back to Ramgarh to bring Jai back to life and do something about the scenes between Radha and Jai. It was all but decided even as the reviews and the audience slammed the film and called it a flop. But at the last minute, Ramesh decided to wait till the Monday after the release. They all agreed. Monday dawned and the tide completely changed in favour of the film. Everything and everyone about the film was loved. ‘Sholay’ went on to create box-office history by running at different theatres for more than five years and is now considered as a major landmark in the history of Indian films. The success of the film propelled the careers of everyone involved in it and the names of the
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characters, more than the names of the stars themselves became household names not only in India, but all over the world. Amitabh gives a major share of the credit for the grand success to the writers, Salim-Javed who went on to script one big hit after another, especially with Amitabh Bachchan as their hero. It was the first film which had its dialogue brought out on a CD and the dialogues of Gabbar Singh are popular even today. Amitabh also talked about the problems the film had to face with the censors. It was during the time of the Emergency when no film was allowed to have more than ninety feet of action and the excess scenes of violence in ‘Sholay’ had to be edited. The original story had Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar) brutally killing Gabbar Singh, but Ramesh Sippy had to change the climax. In the revised version, Thakur mercilessly beats up Gabbar Singh and is about to kill him when the police arrive and arrest Gabbar. It was not the kind of end the audience loved, but the film in totality had the audience spell bound. ‘Sholay’ was like nothing they had ever seen. There have been many instances of people watching the film a number of times. A day before Amitabh talked about ‘Sholay’, he met an entire family which had seen the film a thousand times! I was in the area around Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh once, to attend a film festival. The crowds kept coming in every evening hoping to watch films for free. But the night ‘Sholay’ was screened, the entire Shakarpur was out to see the film for the umpteenth time. Will there be another ‘Sholay’? Amitabh was doubtful and said it would never happen at least as long as he was alive. I am one of those fortunate few to have see the making of the film and to have been present at the premiere at Minerva when everyone from the industry walked out saying what a horrible film it was. I saw the tide turn when the film took the world of cinema by storm and I now see the young generation admiring and enjoying the film as much as their fathers and mothers, and grandfathers and grandmothers did for forty years. Amitabh Bachchan who was a relatively new actor
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SOME OTHER TRUTHS ABOUT ‘SHOLAY’ ● It ran for five years at the Minerva in Mumbai. The current booking did not open for two years. It ran to houseful shows in the current booking for the next two years. It was then shifted to matinee shows till it was taken off when the film completed five years of its run at the theatre. By a strange (or was it planned?) coincidence, the same Ramesh Sippy’s multi-starrer ‘Shaan’ opened at the Minerva on the morning after ‘Sholay’ ran for the last day. ● It had platinum runs in more than fifty theatres all over India. ● It ran for twenty five weeks in hundreds of theatres. ● The cassettes and records of the dialogue of the film (Salim-Javed) sold more than the music (Anand Bakshi, R.D Burman). ● The dialogues were very popular with the people. In a researched docu-drama made by Krishna Shah, ‘Cinema Cinema’, ‘Sholay’ was screened and the interesting part was seeing the audience speaking the dialogue before the characters in the film could speak them. ● The film holds the record of selling the maximum number of tickets in India. Going by the collections of the film, it can easily be said that the film in today’s times would have collected rupees four hundred crore. ● “Arre Sholay nahi dekhi kitne dino se”, was a common line spoken by people who had almost got into the habit of seeing the film as many times as possible. ● Amjad Khan was very keen that his father Jayant who was a leading villain in the sixties sees his performance as Gabbar Singh, but his father died of cancer just a few days before the release of the film. ● It could perhaps be the last film of Helen as a cabaret dancer in a film. Her dance to the song, ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’ is a cult number today. (Facts from the memory file of Suhas Khandke)
during the making of ‘Sholay’ is still burning bright while all the others who worked with him have faded away. Actors like Amjad Khan, Sanjeev Kumar, Leela Mishra, A.K Hangal, the great cinematographer Dwarka Divecha and the many technicians, the lyricist Anand Bakshi and the music director R.D Burman are all dead and actors like Sachin, Asrani, Jagdeep, Viju Khote and Major Anand are growing old and are unfortunately even out of work. n
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The Stage-Show Trend – Another ‘First’ That Amitabh Started Anandji of Anandji-Kalyanji fame remembers how the idea for Bollywood-themed stage shows first occurred to them, while celebrating the success of ‘Muqaddar ka Sikandar’
During the 70s, the Music Hall of Kalyanji-Anandji was a hub for many newcomers and strugglers of the film industry and also bustling with luminaries from various fields of life doctors, sportsmen, politicians et al.
performances of Hollywood actors. During one such stage show, we wondered if we could come with something on those lines. Just to give you a brief history, our actors and actresses used to attend shows abroad, but they limited themselves to exchanging pleasantries, performing a few dialogues or humming a couple of lines from their songs.
Prakash Mehra had just launched his new film ‘Zanjeer’. This film had been offered to many like Dev Amitabh Bachchan with Kalyanji - Anandji Anand, Dharmendra and Shashi Kapoor, but due to the story which was different from the usual romantic films it was declined by them. What we started was a 3 hour show filled with performances by the Big B himself along with Along came Amitabh Bachchan, who had already other singers and dancers. And so, what started acted in around 10 films before, but had yet to off as an experiment in 1980 went on till 1998 taste success. A tall, shy, introvert personality with with performances all over the world, including the unconventional looks. Our friend Bipin Bhai who was famous Madison Square Garden in New York and the also an astrologer, read his hand and predicted a Wembley Stadium in UK. We traveled with a troupe of very bright future for Mr. Bachchan, who himself then 75 to 80 musicians, singers and actors. wondered how it would be possible after his previous struggles. "Aap ko poori duniya pehchanegi" were his Even though he was extremely busy, Mr. Bachhan exact words which ring so true today. would make sure he found ample time to rehearse for Soon after, Zanjeer was made with 3 songs, none of the shows. His punctuality and dedication towards his them on the hero of the film, and yet it was a Golden work is something that I still admire, and am in awe Jubilee for the film. With its roaring success began of. It definitely plays a huge part in the successful the trend of ‘The Angry Young Man’. person that he is today. Our relationship with Amitji grew both on a professional and personal level. His films like ‘Hera Pheri’, ‘Khoon Pasina’, ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikander’, ‘Lawaris’, ‘Don’ and ‘Adalat’ had music composed by us. The success of the music of ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar’, which was a musical hit, gave the 1st Platinum Disc to India. To celebrate, Prakash Mehraji, Amitji and me went to USA for a holiday. There we met Mr. Kirit Trivedi who took us to Las Vegas to watch the
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On a personal level, the love and respect towards his parents and the duties he fulfilled towards them is something very rarely seen. When a person has reached the pinnacle and still takes time off for his near and dear ones, it is a quality worth applause. Though we don't meet very often these days, my memories of him always bring a smile to my face. Here's wishing Amitji a very happy birthday filled with health, wealth, and happiness. God bless. n
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“This is Amitabh Bachchan speaking…” From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, there must be no one who cannot recognise that deep baritone...
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ery few know that Mr. Bachchan made his film debut in 1969 as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen's National Award winning film Bhuvan Shome. Known for his deep voice, which can make anyone weak in the knees, Amitabh has been a narrator, a playback singer, and presenter for numerous programmes. Many will remember the
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evergreen, playful number from Mr Natwarlal, “Mere paas aao, mere doston…”. In it he sings part of the Hanuman Chalisa. Not long ago, he sang all of it and the perfectly intoned chant is available on Youtube. Renowned film director Satyajit Ray was apparently so impressed with his voice that he decided to use
Bachchan as the narrator in his 1977 film Shatranj Ke Khilari. More recently, Bachchan lent his voice as a narrator to the film Lagaan (2001) which was a super hit and in 2005, to the Oscar-winning French documentary March of the Penguins, directed by Luc Jacquet. In that famous baritone, he has addressed some of the most memorable meetings, speaking on a wide range of subjects. A couple of instances that follow may help to visualise the effect he has on the audience. The women’s wing of the Indian Merchants Chamber had once arranged a luncheon meeting with him at its auditorium opposite the Churchgate Station. There was a furore outside the building which is even otherwise a very crowded place. Amitabh who used to travel in his own vanity van (he was the first along with filmmaker Manmohan Desai who had his own van of the same colour and almost the same number, with a difference of just one digit), reached the auditorium and after the host for the evening fumbled in her introduction of him, there was pin drop silence for a few moments till he was asked to come up to the podium. He only had to say, “Good afternoon gracious ladies of the Indian Merchants Chamber”, and there was an uproar of applause which seemed unstoppable. But Amitabh went on and made gallant efforts to emphasize that the film industry was not only about “nachne gaanewale”. He said he was sure that the industry would grow into a major industry in the near future. On a personal note, he added that his era was coming to an end. He had noticed the first signs of younger actors taking over from him when he saw his little daughter Shweta and son Abhishek talking about the films of Aamir Khan and Salman Khan. He said, “Tomorrow belongs to these young Khans and people like me will be pushed into the background. But, till I have health on my side, I will do my best and keep giving them competition, and when I am of no use, I will be willing to even stand in a crowd. I would not mind being seen as a junior artist again”. The women brought the house down with more
than twenty minutes of clapping, cheering “Amitabh Amitabh…” A senior journalist who was present observed, “These women are not going to have a normal night today. He has won them over completely".
“Tomorrow belongs to these young Khans and people like me will be pushed into the background...” In another incident, it so happened that Bharat Ratna recipient and India’s nightingale, Lata Mangeshkar and Amitabh Bachchan were on the same stage at the Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai. She was to be presented with the first ever Hridayesh Award instituted by her younger brother Pt.Hridaynath Mangeshkar and had to choose one of four names, from whom she would receive the award. She instantly opted for Amitabh, saying that she was an ardent fan of his, not only for his acting but also of him as a speaker. She called him “Hindi Bhasha ke Shahenshah” and he proved her right by making a most lucid speech about her as a replica of the Goddess Saraswati. The singer kept listening to him in rapt attention and patted him on the back when he touched her feet, asking him to try speaking in Marathi sometime. He made her a promise then, and lo behold! Amitabh Bachchan made his maiden speech in Marathi before an audience of politicians from Maharashtra and the leading lights of the Marathi film industry. After listening to all the previous speakers, who spoke in shuddh marathi, he took everyone by surprise when it was his turn to speak as the chief guest. Beginning his address in Marathi, he continued to speak in the language, asking the people to forgive him if he made any lapses. With his usual elan he said “Marathi shikhna mushkil hain, namumkin nahin”. Completely flooring the listeners, he talked about his deep sense of gratitude to Maharashtra which had given him a place to live in, a job, a family and of course all the love and fame, things which he would never be able to pay back, he added. n
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A dynamic force unto himself, Amitabh derives his energy from work and says it’s not over till it’s over
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mitabh at seventy-five is still as active as any young man of twenty-five or thirty at the most. Just try following him whenever he enters any auditorium or public place (the only places you can try this), where he has to be. A strange sight which borders on the comical can be witnessed. As he walks with long strides and leaps, all his strong, gun-wielding security men are trying their best, breathing heavily and even sweating to keep pace with him. One of his senior security guards admitted a couple of years ago about how difficult it is for them, “Humne bahut se logon ka security kiya hai lekin aaj tak aisa aadmi kabhi dekha nahi hai, is umar mein bhi yeh kamaal ki chaal, kya kahein...” It is now a well-known fact that he works eighteen
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hours a day on an average, and not just as one of the busiest actors of our time, but also because he is involved in so many different ideas and projects all the time. There have been times in the recent past when he has started shooting early in the morning and continued until the wee hours of the next day. The action co-ordinator, Sham Kaushal who has worked with him in the past, says he still can’t believe how the Big B can manage it, “I sincerely believe that there is only one man who can work with the same energy and enthusiasm today and that is Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. Anyone who has worked with him even for a few hours can vouch that this man has the greatest
all his commitments. At times no one from the unit had reached the studio, but he was always there before time, waiting for the others to come, without complaint. He used the time to catch up with his reading in his van. Once he even walked into the empty studio and watered the plants! At the muhurat of a film starring Raaj Kumar and Vinod Khanna he was asked to come at 11 to R.K Studios to sound the clapper-board and was there dot on time, only to wait for more than two hours. He told his host (K.C Bokadia) that he had come to perform a duty and would not leave till he had fulfilled it. Another time, at the launch of a Punjabi film being made by an actress called Preeti Sapru, he was asked to reach at 10 am sharp. He reached ten minutes before ten and saw only the actress sitting in a chair. She was frantic when she saw him but he asked her to calm down and said he would wait till her function started. The wait lasted for more than one and a half hour, after which he sounded the clapper-board for the muhurat shot taken on a few small Punjabi actors, posed for photographs and then left. The actress was a picture of embarrassment and disbelief. There have been countless functions held in different parts of the city and he has always reached on time or before time, making sure he sends his secretary, Rosy Singh, to inform the hosts, in the rare cases that he is delayed.
respect for time, his work and the work of people he is collaborating with. Though I have worked with him in the past, I think working with him now is the an even greater privilege. There is so much to learn from him and the more you learn, the more he makes you wonder how he makes things happen according to his plans�. He has had the courage to shoot all day, then take a flight to Mumbai to attend an awards function and then again take the first flight out of Mumbai to reach Kolkata in time for the shooting of his film. His utmost regard for time is not a recent development for in his early years he invented a special shift which started at seven in the morning, so he could honour
Though he used to fly to different countries in the seventies, he made an exception whenever he heard about either of his parents falling sick, and took the fastest supersonic jets to reach them. It is an unwritten rule that Bachchan has to be with his family on all important festivals, birthdays, anniversaries and other occasions. In an interview with Rajdeep Sardesai, he was asked about his endless energy and enthusiasm to work several hours even now. He said that he was an entirely charged man before the camera and it was work and only work that gave him the energy to keep working, “I believe in switching on and not switching off. I think it will be lights, camera and action for me as long as I can because I cannot think of doing anything else at this age.� n
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Knocking on Dilip Kumar’s door at midnight Young, excited and intoxicated, Amitabh, Salim and Javed dared to do the unthinkable.
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t was some time in the seventies. Yash Chopra’s ‘Deewaar’ had just released and was one of the most talked about films. It was loved by the classes, the masses and even the critics. Amitabh Bachchan was the star among stars. He had firmly established himself as number one and the action hero of the century. His performances as
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a coolie in the docks and then conversely Don of the city had swept people of all ages off their feet. The writer-duo of Salim-Javed who had written Amitabh to extraordinary fame with other films had also written ‘Deewaar’ and were the highest paid writers and as or even more important than all the other stars. The success of the film had given all of them good reason
“Don’t live in the shadows of people’s judgement. Make your own choices in the light of your own wisdom..”
to call for a celebration. Amitabh, Salim and Javed were the best of friends after they first worked in ‘Zanjeer’. They decided to have a private celebration of their own which only meant enjoying the best available Scotch. They were all known for their love of the bottle, even Amitabh. According to a very good friend he could gulp down an entire bottle during the course of an evening, a ritual which he continued until a ghastly accident in Goa, after which he lost his best friend, Amjad Khan. Coming back, the three friends began drinking as soon as the sun set. The evening continued with all the banter, gossip and even some bawdy language. They were up to their gills by the time it was midnight. Suddenly one of them realized that they were not really doing anything exciting enough to match the occasion . He suggested that they go and visit the emperor of acting, Dilip Kumar. All three were crazy fans of the legend . They had a bit of a discussion on whether to go or not. It was after midnight when their cars entered the gates of 34, Pali Hill, where the Shahenshah lived with his ‘Begum’, Saira Banu. The only watchman present was in a daze. They rang the doorbell. The household was fast asleep but they kept trying till they saw the lights come on. The large door was opened by a man dressed in white. To their bewilderment, they saw that they were face to face
with Dilip Kumar himself. But he had guessed their inebriated state and clapped his hands so the whole mansion was lit up and everyone woken up. The kitchen came alive, the bar was thrown open and it was party time all over again with Dilip Saab joining the three wise men who were in no condition to know the difference between dream and reality. He did not make them feel uncomfortable in any way and the hot kebabs kept coming in from all directions. There was talk about films, about shaayri and also about Yash Chopra and the classic he had made. They spoke about Haji Mastan whose life had inspired SalimJaved to write the script of ‘Deewaar’. One of the three friends finally realized that it was now the next morning and they decided to take leave. There was a great deal of hugging as Dilip Kumar saw them off at the gate… It was the next evening when they realized how foolhardy they had been to barge in like that into the house of the legend. They tried their best to apologize, but Dilip Saab would not have any of it. Salim Khan, remembers most of it vividly, even after forty years and says, “Isiliye toh woh shahenshah kahlaate hain. What he did that night was hospitality at its very best . I will never forget that night and I am sure neither will my friends. Who gets a chance to spend a night like that with a shahenshah who is born perhaps once in many hundred years?” n
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“I ALWAYS TREATED HIM LIKE AN ELDER BUT HE…” Amitabh Bachchan’s tribute to the prolific filmmaker and gentle soul S. Ramanathan, who directed him in his first ‘commercial’ lead role and later in many others
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assistant to a prominent director in the South, who also directed Hindi films. Mehmood bhai picked out S Ramanathanji to direct ‘Bombay to Goa’, in many senses my first lead role in the commercial genre of Indian escapist cinema.
I first met him with Mehmood bhai. He had been
It is difficult to describe someone who becomes a part of you during your association with him. From the first film that he did with me, to the very last, he always remained an affable, dedicated friend and senior, rather than a professional head. Apart from the directorial responsibilities that he handled, he was always present there for me on each trip that I made to Chennai. Picking me up from the airport, dropping me back, introducing me to some of the most prominent places of worship, even becoming a facilitator on projects that he was not involved in, setting up meetings and introducing me to the best and the most prominent members of the Southern Film Industry, he was generally a person who exhibited extreme responsibility and care as far
he late filmmaker, S. Ramanathan who is credited with giving Amitabh his first lead role in ‘Bombay To Goa’, way back in the early seventies also made many other films with him including ‘Geraftaar’, ‘Ganga Jamuna Saraswati’ and ‘Mahaan’, in which Amitabh played a triple role. The last film they did together was ‘Zamaanat’ around 2003, in which Amitabh’s co-star is the one-time ‘lady Amitabh’ of the south, Vijaya Shanti. The film which has still to be released went into a state of limbo after the sudden death of Ramanathan. The latter was hoping to work with his favourite actor again and had eight more scripts ready, with only with his ‘friend and well-wisher’ Amitabh Bachchan in mind. Even though Ramanathan was twenty years older than Amitabh, he called him ‘Amitji’ out of respect and for Amitabh he was always ‘Sir’. Following is an account of their association, in Mr Bachchan’s own words:
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as I was concerned. If I needed anything to be done in the South he was the person I went to, and he was immaculate in his organizational qualities. As an assistant with the most popular and well known directors of the South he had acquired great acumen as a director himself, proof of which came from the several successful films he directed and produced in various languages – Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and of course Hindi, most of them with me. He had the ability to gauge talent and had the foresight of visualizing future success stories of many prominent artists. Ramanathanji was a pious and religious person. He would urge me to accompany him to the many important and religiously strong locations, some that I still visit whenever I am in Chennai. I always treated him like an elder, but I knew that he never accepted that position. Rather he always treated me as an equal, and members of my family as his own. His association with Abhishek and Shweta from the time they were kids, played out till his last days. And the children too gave him that respect, as did all the members of the family. He was a caring and sensitive person, self respecting and most considerate to all who came in contact with him. He presented me on each of my birthdays with the largest garland in the world, specially made in Chennai and brought to me wherever I would be. That garland would adorn my humble temple at Prateeksha for as long as it lasted. Sadly, that familiar figure of Ramanathanji at Chennai, or his generous garland shall now be absent from my life. A lovely and most caring human is no longer amongst us. But the work that he did in his creativity and the specialty of his nature shall remain, and that shall ever be his remembrance. His later years were fraught with problems that were professional in nature, and issues that he was desperately seeking to address and solve. Despite all
N.C Sippy and the comedian Mehmood who were partners in producing films had decided to make a film called ‘Bombay to Goa’, and had signed the renowned Film Director, S. Ramanathan, to direct it. The three men had several meetings to discuss the film but were in a fix about who to take on as the hero. One afternoon as Mehmood and the director were standing below the office of Sippy, a tall, lanky young man with long hair greeted Mehmood and ran up the stairs to meet Romu Sippy (N.C Sippy’s son) who was a friend of his. Ramanathan ‘Sir’ kept looking at the young man and as if on impulse asked Mehmood who he was, and before Mehmood could answer, he said, “I think we have found our hero.” Mehmood felt that the experienced director who had worked with stalwarts like Dilip Kumar and Sivaji Ganesan was joking, but he wasn’t. So, the young man was called downstairs and told what had transpired. The young man although taken aback, asked if he could get his clothes for the film done by Burlingtons, a high profile shop dealing in the best of clothes. Ramanathan Sir said there was no need, and that the decision to cast him as the hero was final. They now had problems finding a heroine for the six-feet something hero as all the leading actresses of the time refused to work with him. Aruna Irani, who was best known for her dance and vampish roles until then, was finally decided upon to play alongside Amitabh Bachchan.
the personal help that I could manage for him, he still was unable to find a solution. He had been ailing for some time. Nothing that is typically associated with one beyond 80 years. But he was troubled with the various issues that he never completely disclosed. His self pride would not permit him to do that. He sat out on his balcony after his morning prayers in Chennai, listening to some music, and quietly passed away. A soft, gentle and quiet end to a man who all his life complemented such attributes. n
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Amitabh, Rekha And Their One-Time War With The Press! Reams upon reams have been written about them, but there was a time when it became just too much
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or years the Press, especially the tabloids wrote about the ‘affair’ between Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha as if nothing else could be more interesting . There were just a few magazines in those days and they were lapped
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up by the readers who loved all the wild stories about the leading stars’ affairs of the heart. The AmitabhRekha story was picked up by all the magazines while the regional press added its own touch of imagination and made the stories even more far-fetched. A
time came when both stars put their foot down and decided to put a blanket ban on the entire press, including the photographers. It was while this ban was on that I was surprised when the leading PRO of the time, Gopal Pandey, came to me with an invitation to cover the shooting of a film called ‘Mr Natwarlal’ starring Amitabh and Rekha. I felt he was joking and asked him if it would be right to go all the way to Mahabaleshwar only to be thrown out by both Amitabh and Rekha. He said he had talked to the producer, Mr Tito who had promised him that he would make sure nothing like that happened. There were only two journalists, my friend, Harneet Kathuria, from a leading gossip magazine called ‘Star and Style’, who had to his credit the maximum number of wild stories about Amitabh and Rekha, and me. My sixth sense told me that something was certainly going to go wrong, but Pandey kept reassuring me and Harmeet was only too excited at the prospect of getting a very spicy story about the two ‘lovers’. We drove up the hills and finally reached Mahabaleshwar, and checked into one of the best hotels. All was well till the absolutely harassed Mr Tito came into our room with three more bottles of Scotch (other than the ones kept in our rooms) and in a voice which was cracking, said, “Take this and anything else you want and please leave Mahabaleshwar the first thing in the morning.” On asking him what had gone wrong, he confessed that as soon as Amitabh came to know that Harmeet had also come with me, he told Mr Tito that it would either be Harmeet or him on the sets the next day. Mr Tito did not have the nerve to say no to Amitabh who was also his very dear friend. He joined his hands and told us , “I have spent lakhs of rupees on the set and if both the stars refuse to shoot because of Harmeet, I will be doomed. So, please leave before Amitabh or Rekha even get a chance to see Harmeet.” The stars were ok however with me staying back. I was in a fix. The same Harmeet who was like a tiger before Mr Tito came in was now pleading with me to return with him and Pandey because if I stayed back and wrote about Amitabh and Rekha, his editor would come to know that only he had been asked to leave the shoot. I was
TRIVIA ON THE AMITABH-REKHA AFFAIR ● Amitabh first saw Rekha when she was a neighbor of Jaya Bhaduri at Beach Apartments in Juhu. He was a struggler and Jaya and Rekha were stars and very good friends. Jaya introduced him to Rekha and they became friends. ● Amitabh first worked with Rekha in ‘Namak Haram’ in which Rajesh Khanna was the major highlight. Rekha was still to become the great star she was destined to be. ● The two came together in leading roles in ‘Do Anjaane’. It was the first time that their chemistry was noticed and by the time they did ‘Mr Natwarlal’ it was very clear that they were in love, a feeling which apparently grew with every film they did together. ● Their story fascinated the whole country and even inspired Yash Chopra to make one of the best films of his career, ‘Silsila’. He managed a casting coup when he brought the characters from real life, Amitabh, Rekha and Jaya, together in the film. ● Life soon changed. Amitabh was the father of two children and was involved in all kinds of activities, having no time for affairs. They have never worked together after ‘Silsila’ but there are people who still believe that the two are still in love. She refers to him just as ‘HIM’ and never takes his name. Amitabh has now, after years said that he has no problems working with her again. ● It is widely believed that it was Amitabh who is responsible for bringing about the great transformation in Rekha from the ‘ugly duckling’ to the ‘miracle woman’.
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still thinking when Harmeet went out and soon there was a problem. Amitabh’s make-up man, Deepak Sawant had seen Harmeet and beat him up because he had insulted his boss. I decided to put my own job at risk and returned with Pandey and Harmeet only to report to my editor that there was no shooting in Mahabaleshwar because of bad weather. Harmeet should have learnt a lesson from that incident, but he was not the kind to change. A few days later Gopal Pandey came with another invitation to cover the shooting of a film called ‘Asha Jyoti’, starring Rekha. Harmeet should have had the wisdom to not come, especially when he knew how Rekha reacted to the mere mention of his name. But he was defiant and was part of a group of ten journalists from different magazines and some major daily newspapers. We had taken an early morning flight to reach Hyderabad in time for the muhurat shot to be taken at 11 am sharp. The atmosphere at the Annapurna Studio was like one at a wedding. There was a huge crowd of stars from Bombay and from the South. The muhurat shot was to be taken of Rekha. Time passed and there was no sign of her. The producer, Mr Kovai Cheziyan was a leading politician, a businessman and a filmmaker who had made some very big films in Tamil and was now making his first Hindi film. Farzana, Rekha’s fiery secretary had gone and told
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her ‘madam’ about the presence of all the journalists from Bombay and made a special mention of Harmeet. Rekha went crazy and sent a message to the producer that she would not shoot unless all the journos were put in a bus and sent out of the studio. The producer had no idea what was happening and chose me to explain to him what was really wrong. I told him about the war Rekha had declared on all film journalists. He said, “I have been making films with some of the biggest stars but have never faced such a strange situation." He too now folded his hands and asked us to take a bus and go sightseeing in Hyderabad and leave by the evening flight. He also asked me who Harmeet Kathuria was because ‘madam’ just did not want to see his face. But who could change Harmeet? He made it a point to leave a nasty letter in Rekha’s name. I was again the chosen one. ‘Madam’ had been very kind and asked the producer to let me stay and watch her shoot. Once again however I could not let down my friends and joined them in the tour of Hyderabad. I saved them all by saying that the shooting was postponed by a few days and later had to face a firing for ‘joining the rats who are so scared of Rekha.’ The film, ‘Asha Jyoti’, with Rajesh Khanna as the hero was a very big flop. The producer vowed never to make a Hindi film again, but unfortunately the opportunity was not to arise again as he soon died of a massive heart attack. n
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a ratty affair When Amitabh spent three hours catching a rat in his office
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ne morning as Amitabh sat in his office, his entire staff was on alert, not knowing what to do till their ‘Paa’ (for some strange reason everyone at ‘Prateeksha’ called him ‘Paa’ which is what his children call him) gave them a signal. Amitabh had spent the whole morning trying to trap a rat that was apparently “playing havoc with him and was more difficult to trap than Gabbar Singh”. He said he had tried all the tricks he knew of how to trap a rat, the lessons he had learnt on the subject when he was a little boy, but this one rat was not willing to fall for any of his clever games. “I will not give up this battle till I catch this fellow. I have faced many villains in my life but have never found it as difficult as this battle”, he told me. His staff looked on helplessly as he would not let anyone else come to his aid. “Yeh meri takkar hai mere dushman se aur iss se main hi nipat loonga, yeh mujhe haraa hi nahi
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sakta” The ‘takkar’ almost turned into a major war when Sundaram, his cook came in to tell him that his lunch was ready. It was very important for him to have his lunch on time because only then could he have all his afternoon medicines. “Nahin, abhi nahi, jab tak dushman mere haath nahi aata khana peena, dawa daaru sab bandh”, he said with his eyes watchful, waiting for the ‘dushman’ to make its next move. A full three hours later (according to Vaz) a tired rat came out and surrendered to a man would not accept defeat. “Le jao isse aur rakh do mere kamre mein. Dekhengey ise maar diya jaaye ya chhod diya jaaye,” he said with a look of triumph all over his face. He then excused himself and went in to have his lunch only to return to his office, where I had been asked to wait for him for 8 minutes. He was there just before 8 minutes. n
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Two of his Favourite Women
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In a career spanning more than 40 years, Mr Bachchan has worked with some supremely talented and beautiful women. Who then does he admire the most?
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cannot imagine a world without women. What would we do without women?” asks Amitabh Bachchan, who has for years made the hearts of millions of women, beat faster. The two women in showbiz who he holds in the highest esteem however, are Waheeda Rehman and Bharat Ratna, Lata Mangeshkar. Waheeda Rehman is definitely an all-time favourite actress of his and about her, he says, “She was my ideal actress when I was in school and college and I still look up to her as a picture of the complete woman, soft but strong, enlightened but also a great entertainer. She is a major chapter in the history of Indian cinema. I have been very lucky to have worked with her in films like ‘Adaalat’ and ‘Mahaan’ and I still have hope to work with her some time. Some people said that I was exaggerating when I said that I shivered before approaching her to be on my show, ‘Aaj Ki Raat Zindagi’. How can I explain something that is very personal and something that only I can feel, about someone special?" ‘Mahaan’ is the only film in which Amitabh played a triple role and in which he had to sing a song to Waheeda in his own voice. The one other woman who Amitabh admires infinitely is India’s nightingale, Lata Mangeshkar. He calls himself a ‘devotee’ of her voice and has said that life would be meaningless without her songs. He was
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thrilled when she received the Bharat Ratna and also when Lata chose him to present her with the first Hridaynath Award instituted by her brother, Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar. The feeling was mutual as Lata called him “Hindi bhasha ke Shahenshah” and the “maharaja” among actors. It is now Lata’s ardent desire to see Amitabh being conferred with the Bharat Ratna. Talking about Amitabh, she says, “He is not only a very great actor, he is also one of the most well behaved human beings I have seen. He is rooted to Indian culture and what can I say about his God gifted voice and command over the Hindi language?” Amitabh, who is otherwise very articulate found himself at a loss when it came to describing Lata’s illustriousness. He said Lataji had a highly respected place in the Bachchan household right from his father’s time and felt that she sang all the songs for Jaya with that extra touch to match Jaya’s personality, and not just that of the character she was playing. He remembered he had once asked his ‘Babuji’ (Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan) how he would describe Lataji, being a poet himself. His father took a few seconds to answer and said there was a rare silken string between great singers and the divine power, but when Lata sang, the string vanished and it was a direct connect between her and the divine. n
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DAY SPECI AL RTH BI
When
AB and Madhuri
came together for a photoshoot Amitabh wondered why she would like to shoot with an ‘old man’, while she wondered why he would like to shoot with her, ‘a fan of his’, at all
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mitabh had taken a voluntary long break in those days and I often saw him walking around ‘Prateeksha’, watering the plants and then sitting in his office answering all the calls that came in, almost taking over from his office secretary cum manager, Vaz (an ex-Indian Air Force man who had joined Amitabh years ago when he lived in an unknown apartment “Mangal”. Vaz retired from his duties just some years ago and is an entirely dedicated ‘Bachchan Bhakt’). Jaya was busy as the Chairperson of the Children’s Film Society and engaged in other social activities and Shweta and Abhishek were studying abroad. I set forth my proposal to him, hoping he would agree. Would he like to do a photo session with Madhuri Dixit, the ruling, number one actress at the time? His eyes brightened up and he said, “Of course, who would not like to be photographed with a beautiful and talented actress like Madhuri? Ask her if she is willing to pose with an old man like me and I am willing to do it anytime she has the time.” When I told Madhuri about it that same evening she sounded like a schoolgirl who was getting a chance to meet the star she was a great fan of. Her first reaction was, “You must be joking. Why should such a great man agree to do a photo session with a fan like
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me?” It took me some time to assure her that Amitabh had agreed to do it in less time than it was taking me to convince her. She told her parents about it all and they were as excited as her. Madhuri contacted Rikkuji, her manager who looked after her dates and time and he went out of his way to make time for this important occasion. Meanwhile I got back to Amitabh who was busy listening to some classical music and told him about the “No objection certificate” I had got from Madhuri. “I am really very excited. It’s not easy for a jobless star to get a chance to be photographed with a beautiful girl who is also a wonderful actress. I am game, anytime, Ali”, he reacted. I seemed to have taken on one of the greatest challenges of my career. I mulled over of some of the best photographers around and knew they would all be only too willing to grab this opportunity but then I decided to give this challenge to a new photographer, R. Krishna who had worked as an assistant with the celebrated cinematographer Santosh Sivan. He could not believe what I was saying till he got drunk! That very crucial morning dawned and Madhuri called me again to ask me if the session was really on. I said yes and asked her to be in time at eleven sharp because I knew about Amitabh’s passion for punctuality. Krishna, the photographer and I reached ‘Prateeksha’ an hour before eleven. Amitabh came
down the staircase, dressed in his best grey suit (there was no Reid & Taylor in his life those days) and said, “Kyun bhai, Ali, sab theek hai na. Main taiyaar hoon subah se. Aaj kal suit pehenne ka mauka kahaan milta hai?” I was already sweating and told him it was all under control. Amitabh then called his entire staff for an emergency meeting. He asked Vaz, his security chief to throw open the huge gate which is normally shut and asked him to see that there were no visitors and no disturbance of any kind. He then asked the other staff to be at their best behavior because the biggest female star was coming to ‘Prateeksha’ for the first time. I saw him taking his place in a chair next to where his father’s books with pages embossed in gold were kept, and the long wait for Madhuri started. It was eleven and she had not yet come. At twelve there was still no sign of Madhuri and to top it all there were no mobiles in those days. I kept calling Madhuri’s home number and her mother kept telling me in a nervous tone that they were on their way. I panicked at twelve- thirty, but Amitabh kept sitting in his chair and asked me to keep my cool. “Aisa hota hai bade bade sitaaron ke saath, hum yahaan se hatne waale nahi hai madam ke aane tak”, he said. Madhuri finally landed with her mother but before that Amitabh had already asked for the T.V and his music system to be brought down from his room. Madhuri and her mother had no words to explain their delay but it was later known that it was her makeup man, Bharat Godambe, who had been caught in a traffic jam. Amitabh just smiled and then took his guests around his house and in between he asked Madhuri’s mother if she would agree to exchange her beautiful daughter with his two children, Shweta and Abhishek. The mother (Snehlata) blushed and Amitabh asked them if they would have lunch which he said was a very simple affair and all vegetarian.
They were too tense to take up his offer. Soon it was time for the shoot to start and Krishna, the photographer went on clicking as if there was going to be no tomorrow. In between the shots Amitabh kept telling Madhuri’s mother that he was serious about his exchanging his children for Madhuri and she did not know how to react. The session went on for three long hours and got over at 3:30 in the afternoon. I expected one of them to grumble but they were at their professional best. The session was over and Amitabh walked up to Madhuri’s car and saw them off. The only thing he told me at the end of the session was not to give away the photographs to anyone else because, “I have done it only for you”. I was a blend of excitement and exhaustion. The photographs were published and special paper was used for the cover, something which my company rarely did. The photo-shoot led to several questions being asked. the most common being, ‘Is Amitabh Bachchan making a comeback with Madhuri?’ Krishna the photographer had become a celebrity and Madhuri always told me that she had rarely felt so nervous and excited as she did during that shoot. That morning I realized that determination and perseverance could really move mountains and sometimes even the stars! P.S. The only said part was that Krishna could not resist the temptation and he ended up selling all those photographs to an agent who circulated them among some of the leading B grade Hindi magazines. One day I was taken by surprise when Amitabh called me to his office and said, “Look, I had told you...”. His voice was like a stinging slap in my face. He then placed a number of magazines carrying the same photographs and I felt like Peter, the character in ‘Deewaar’, being beaten up mercilessly by Amitabh. His words still ring in my ears but that morning is one I can always talk about to my grandchildren. n
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When Amitabh was declared
‘clinically dead’ The nation was on tenterhooks when Amitabh who was their invincible hero, had a near fatal accident during one of his film-shoots...
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here were millions of prayers being offered for Amitabh in every place of worship as he lay in a critical condition at the Breach Candy Hospital on the first floor in room number 302. A team of doctors, some of the best like Dr. Jayant Barve, Dr. Farokh Udwadia, Dr. Mehta and other junior doctors were working round the clock to revive the “star of the millennium”. There were times when they started losing hope during the almost two month long period of their 24/7 gruelling fight. There were millions of prayers being offered for Amitabh in every place of worship as he lay in a critical condition at the Breach Candy Hospital on the first floor in room number 302. A team of doctors, some of the best like Dr. Jayant Barve, Dr. Farokh Udwadia, Dr. Mehta and other junior doctors were
What Had Actually Happened On 26th July, 1982, while they were filming for ‘Coolie’ in Bangalore, Amitabh and the acting ‘villain’, Punit Issar had to engage in several fights and one of the blows delivered (in all earnestness to make it look real) by Punit went wrong and Amitabh fell on a table, the edge of which struck his stomach. He reeled on the floor in excruciating pain and many believed he was playing one of his pranks for which he was known, but this time it wasn’t a
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working round the clock to revive the “star of the millennium”. There were times when they started losing hope during the almost two month long period of their 24/7 gruelling fight. Huge crowds gathered outside the hospital every day and a bulletin about the latest condition of his health was issued at 2 pm every afternoon. The complications kept growing more and more serious and the team of doctors did not know what course of action to follow. Everyone knew the situation had really worsened when Rajiv Gandhi, his best friend cancelled his trip to America and his mother, the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi herself flew down to Bombay to visit the son of her friend, Mrs. Teji Bachchan.
prank. Amitabh who had almost lost consciousness was rushed to the nearest hospital, St. Philomena’s Hospital in the city where the doctors performed an emergency surgery. When there were no signs of any improvement, his director-friend S. Ramanathan made arrangements with an airline to fly him to Bombay, booking several seats so Amitabh could be flown in a supine position, with doctors attending to him. At the Bombay Airport, his friends Yash Chopra and Yash Johar had kept an ambulance ready in
On the evening of August 2, 1982, the doctors called Amitabh’s friends - Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, Yash Johar and Yash Chopra and told them that the battle had been lost, that they could make arrangements for his funeral. The patient in room number 302, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan was declared ‘clinically dead’. Dr. Wadia then took what the other doctors called ‘a very risky and even crazy decision’. He pumped several ampoules of Cortisone injections into the patient in the hope that the power of the injections would revive him and it did, for Amitabh Bachchan came back to life! But it was Jaya who first saw one of his toes moving and screamed to draw attention of the doctors who were busy focusing on the top half of his body. Jaya’s prayers at Siddhivinayak temple, where she walked barefeet every night, had been answered, as had been the prayers of a million others in churches, mosques and temples all over the country. The beloved of the masses had put up one of his greatest fights and was declared out of danger, but was still just a bag of bones, reduced to a shadow of himself. He stayed in hospital for several more days and when he tried to stand up for the first time, his famous legs gave way and he crumbled to the ground. He was discharged from hospital sometime towards the end of August and there were banners all over the city welcoming him back. He spent a few days at ‘Prateeksha’ where the crowds grew uncontrollable with people coming from different parts of the country
which they rushed him to Breach Candy Hospital, where the doctors headed by Dr. Pervez Wadia, Jayant Barve and others performed another surgery. Amitabh had suffered a splenic rupture and they believed it was a touch-and-go case as several parts inside his stomach were seriously damaged and there was continuous bleeding. The operation was a success, but Amitabh continued to be in a critical condition for the next one and a half months.
Another accident that changed Amitabh’s perspective on life . It happened during the shoot of a film called ‘The Great Gambler’ in Goa. Amitabh went for a drive with his friend and co-star in the film, Amjad Khan, when they met with an accident. Amjad who was at the wheel suffered very serious injuries as the steering wheel of the Mercedes in which they were travelling had pierced his chest. He was flown to the Nanavati Hospital in Bombay where he spent six months and survived because of the constant steroids which were part of his medication. But this also led him to put on uncontrollable weight and he kept falling sick until he had a massive heart attack and died, at only fortysix. His friend who was with him was saved by Providence, to remember and sometimes tell that painful story.
and even the world, just to be able to have a glimpse of their idol. Whenever he felt a little better, he came out at around six in the evening and slowly walked to the gate and waved out to the waiting crowd. The crowds went crazy and he walked back home supported by his near and dear ones. This scene continued for some days and then his doctors advised him to leave Bombay so that he could recuperate better and faster. The family moved temporarily to Madh Island where he gradually recovered. Later that year, he resumed shooting exactly where he had left off during that fight sequence in “Coolie”. Director, Manmohan Desai altered the end of the film, in the original of which Amitabh was supposed to die. If you see the film today, that particular fight sequence has been frozen at exactly the crucial moment where the accident occurred. Coolie was a blockbuster hit and Amitabh then went on to do Prakash Mehra’s ‘Sharaabi’. The superstar had returned from the abyss, alive and back in action to entertain and enthrall several more generations to come, with one hit after another. n
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Courtesy: Pradeep Chandra
‘The day I was dead’ – In AB’s own words Mr Bachchan’s reply to a letter describing what he went through on that fateful day of the ‘Coolie’ accident and that Smita Patil had had a premonition...
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ugust the 2nd! And I am surprised that there are some among you that remember this day! Thank you for your sentiments and thank you for making me alive again 32 years after I was dead!
achieve for the day. But he meant 02.08.1982 - 2nd of August 1982. The day I was declared clinically dead…only to survive! Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai after the accident on the sets of' ‘Coolie’ in Bangalore.
Abhishek rang me first from Ooty. “.2882!”, he exclaimed, “Happy birthday Pop, you just turned 32 and I am older than you.” I thought he was referring to the pedometer and the number that I should
32 years! And it seems like it was yesterday.
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‘Coolie’ was being shot in Bangalore because Manji Man Mohan Desai wanted a genuine railway station
and wasn't getting permission for one in Bombay. The authorities had been most cooperative in Bangalore. They had blocked off an entire platform for us and. made it so convenient for us to work that I sometimes joked with Manji about whether he had taken over the Railway Ministry! Then that telephone call from Smita Patil a night before. She was a dear friend and a hesitant entrant to the commercial, mainstream escapist cinema which she felt extremely awkward performing for. I used to encourage her along. She was uncomfortable with the song and dance routine. In the spoken scenes she wanted to justify what she was asked to speak. She questioned the outlandish costumes that were designed for her and insisted on being presented in as natural and normal a manner as possible. Even in the most over the top scenes she got her way. She was a strong woman with very strong basics - the average common person. She never contributed to or was never concerned about image, glamour and position. She had always wished her work to be as close to genuine as possible. A tough girl who never succumbed to the frills of the typical Indian commercial cinema. Yet her countenance was so far removed from her strong personality and beliefs. She was gentle and frail almost in appearance and speech, but her presence was committed and determined. I had done her first commercial film with her, ‘Namak Halaal’. She would shy away from all the 'ridiculous' moments of hers in the film, but goaded and assured she would go and perform to perfection. After its release and massive success, she worked with me in ‘Shakti’ and when she arrived in Madras to shoot for a sequence that we were doing there, she was like an excited, embarrassed child when she informed us that in the flight people were asking her for her autograph; something she said she had not experienced before. We would meet on the sets and on occasion at a formal gathering or a rare function. I never knew her socially nor did we interact as friends. It was therefore most surprising for me to get her call in the middle of the night at an alien destination. She herself was at a remote location for a film
and telephony was not the most immediate and convenient facility in 1982 India. She sounded concerned, an attitude I had not expected from her. She asked after my health and wondered if I was alright. She had had a bad dream she said. And then after a few pleasantries, she disconnected. I had never spoken to her before on the phone. I did not know her well enough to have indulged in such activity and neither had our interactions gone beyond the action on set. So yes, I was intrigued. The next day Jaya and the kids had come over from Bombay, it being a weekend and life was normal. We were shooting some action sequences at the platform and all went off well. I had to jump off an over-bridge on to the roof of a moving train and that went without incident. The next was a dive from inside a moving train onto a trolley on the platform, the trolley then in motion carrying me down a large portion of steps that went rolling down into the basement of a tunnel. And that went off well. We shifted location to the Bangalore University campus next and many daring deeds were performed. Until...perhaps the simplest of shots of taking a punch in the stomach and rolling over a table, brought me to a halt. In more ways than one…
“There was sharp pain as soon as I got up after 'cut' had been announced. I had experienced it before many times in the boxing ring in school... Pretending as though all was well, I slowly walked out to a small lawn and lay down. No one came up to me to inquire.” There was sharp pain as soon as I got up after 'cut' had been announced. I had experienced it before many times in the boxing ring in school. It’s like a punch from your opponent in the solar plexus. You get 'winded'. You grimace and try to find your breath. In the ring the 'seconds' help you take deep intakes
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of it and get you to touch your feet a couple of times and you are ready for the next 'round'. But on set that day the pain did not go. On set in front of crew and visitors you tend to feel embarrassed if you are injured and show it. Pretending as though all was well, I slowly walked out to a small lawn and lay down. No one came up to me to inquire. No one thought I was in distress, in fact they thought I was faking pain in order that ‘Manji’ (Manmohan Desai) would declare a wrap for the grueling day that the unit had been through. Many home remedies were suggested by various people intermittently, while the shooting continued with the others. Things were being considered as normal. I requested Manji to be excused for the day, asked for a car to drop me back to the hotel and drove for about 45 minutes in excruciating pain over a rather bumpy road. I reached my room. Snapped at little Abhishek, who had a habit of greeting me every day on return from my shoot with a leap on my chest and collapsed on my bed, having just about enough energy to tell Jaya to get my personal physician across from Bombay urgently and to send the kids back home. That entire night I writhed in pain and kept asking for morphine to relieve it. By the morning doctors came with portable X-ray machines and took pictures since I was unable to move. They shifted me to the Philomena Hospital in Bangalore, a facility with limited means at that time. Much of my activity and my memory is a blur from then on. I was slipping into a coma, the pain was getting worse; I was having trouble breathing and kept snatching away the oxygen mask that was being put over my face. My dearest friend Habib, Jaya and my brother whom I had asked for were the only ones next to me. I had no idea of what was transpiring elsewhere. I remember Habib coaxing me to keep talking and even singing as instructed by doctors to avoid me slipping into unconsciousness. I vaguely remember a tiny bird that kept appearing on the window of the room I was in. And I remember humming the-background score of ‘Mr Natwarlal’ repeatedly when urged to sing. What happened after is not known to me. But
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several days went by until I could register anything. In between, moments of consciousness did occur. I recollect Javed Saheb the writer and poet Javed Akhtar and his wife Honey, parents of Farhan Akhtar by my bedside in Bangalore and me responding to them in slurred tongue. But that is all. A very senior and renowned neurosurgeon who had come to the hospital for a surgery on one of his patients was requested by Jaya to take a look at me before I was to be shifted to Bombay by the evening flight and I am told he stood by the door of my room and announced - "Get him on the operating table. Right now, else you will be taking a dead body on the evening flight".
“It was then that Dr Udwadia decided to give me one last shot. My BP and pulse was almost zero, I had sunk to a clinical death” I was operated upon. It was then for the first time discovered that I had ruptured an intestine and that the poison had flown out into the stomach and was attacking all the organs. The doctor had warned that his surgery was not adequate, that he had merely eased the situation and that the gut would burst again in a few days. Indian Airlines had graciously removed seats in the front cabin of the aircraft to allow me to be transported there on the stretcher and the hospital set up a mini mobile ICU for the duration of the flight. It was the monsoons in July and weather conditions were a concern especially since any bump was a huge worry for the doctors and for me. Most of the flight I was too drugged to remember, but I do remember that it was one of the smoothest landings ever at the airport, despite the heavy rain conditions. And I do remember the spontaneous applause from the passengers on the flight in appreciation of the fantastic job that the Captain had accomplished.
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On an ambulance supplied and operated by the Shiv Sena under instructions from Balasaheb Thackeray I was moved from the airport to Breach Candy Hospital. Mr Yash Johar, Karan's father did all the arrangements. He had been shuttling between Bangalore and Madras on rapid visits, getting urgent medications and blood platelets required for me while I was at Philomena Hospital. A selfless gentleman, At his temple in 'Jalsa' Yashji was always on hand to help and assist anyone in trouble. He was the one that travelled to London to convince the two specialist doctors of the country to come the risk. His argument being that revival at this stage over to Bombay to attend to me when I developed was of importance. Consequences he would tackle complications. One of the finest humans you could later. The procedure continued at feverish pace. ever have come across. Loved and respected by all. When Jaya noticed my toe move, she shouted it out to Sadly no more with us now. the doctors busy with the upper portion of my body. As predicted, on the fifth day the stomach burst open again and I had to be operated. Under the guidance of the marvelous Dr Farokh Udwadia and his team the second surgery within five days went off well, but... I did not come out of it. For hours they battled with my system to revive me to consciousness…and nothing...Jaya was beckoned by the doctors and told there was no hope. She was brought to my bedside to have a last look... It was then that Dr Udwadia decided to give me one last shot. My BP and pulse was almost zero, I had sunk to a clinical death one could say, but Udwadia persisted. 40 ampoules of cortisone one after another in rapid succession were pumped into me. He knew what the consequences of that excessiveness would do to my insides. But he took
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Loud shouts from the doctors asking my name and who I was ensued next, to keep me talking and conscious. I lived … It was late in the night…very late. An entire day had gone by and it was the 2nd of August 1982. Happy Birthday! The days after, at the hospital, are by themselves another detail. If it is desired I shall talk of it, perhaps on another occasion. ‘God is Great’...read a banner outside ‘Prateeksha’ as I drove in after a couple of months at Breach Candy. His ways are unique and we shall never know why he does what to whom. n
Courtesy: Pradeep Chandra
I was taken off on the food service carrier for convenience and in doing so some drops of rain fell on my face. A drop lay on my eyes and Javed Saheb removed it. Honey and he later narrated the incident to me, emotionally - "It was a terribly sad sight to see, you, this symbol of the angry young man full of vigor and action, unable to raise a finger to remove a drop of rain from your eye."
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Birthday Celebrations
Then and Now From a quiet affair to an open house to a nationwide festival, Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday has always been an event to look forward to
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he Big B’s birthday celebrations have changed with the changing times and circumstances in his life. He has fond memories of his birthday being celebrated by his parents till the time he was in school and college and especially of the sweets prepared by his mother on his birthdays.
Every birthday started with a pooja in the morning. It was a normal day otherwise, until evening when there was a celebration organized by his mother, Mrs. Teji Bachchan with the guests limited to some close relatives and his friends. There came times when he invited over some important friends like Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
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The parties took on a different hue when he took up a job as a junior executive in a firm in Calcutta. Birthdays were private affairs over some drinks followed by a sumptuous dinner with just a few friends. The first birthday he celebrated in Bombay was with the unit of ‘Saat Hindustani’ where there was a lot of fun and games among all the seven ‘Hindustanis’ headed by the director K.A. Abbas who left early, knowing that the boys would like to have their drinks, something Abbas was not against, but also never took a liking for. The next few birthdays were celebrated in a flat he
had bought in a building called ‘Mangal’, a few lanes away from what was to be his future home, ‘Prateeksha’. He had made a few friends like Romesh Sharma, Danny Denzongpa, Jaya Bhaduri and some others who were his only guests. Times changed. He now had a row of flops to his name and he didn’t feel like celebrating his birthday or even any other festival. This state of mind continued till ‘Zanjeer’ came his way and changed his life completely. He was the next superstar who had overthrown the then ruling superstar, Rajesh Khanna. Life was never the same again. He soon bought an empty house for apparently just seven lakh rupees. It used to be called a bhoot bangla and was once used to shoot a film called ‘Usne Kaha Tha’, one of the early films of director Basu Bhattacharya. He had by then married Jaya Bhaduri and they gave the bungalow a new look and called it ‘Prateeksha’. Little did they know that it would become one of the most popular addresses in the country. Life as a superstar was something he often said he could not have imagined. His birthday, October 11, now became one of the most important dates in millions of calendars. His birthdays became an open celebration. All his friends, old and new, all his directors and above all his fans were allowed easy entry into ‘Prateeksha’ to wish him and he plied them with sweets with his own hands. Those who found the opportunity to wish him personally took great pride in the privilege. There were just two ordinary security guards and his trusted men like Vaz, Gangadhar and his make-up man, Deepak Sawant who made it a point to see that there was no chaos. He received every guest personally even as his
Mr. Atul Shah (CMD, Feelings Multimedia Ltd.) has often participated in Mr. Bachchan's birthday celebrations.
parents made the occasion extra special by making everyone comfortable. The table was spread with a number of delicacies, most rarely seen in any other place. The phones (there were no mobile phones then) kept ringing continuously and Amitabh attended as many calls as he could. It was a birthday without any hassle and even I did not have to think twice before deciding to go wish him. This kind of celebration became a regular feature till he met with a near fatal accident on the sets
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of 'Coolie'. The next birthday was celebrated in an old bungalow in Madh Island where his doctors had advised him to shift so he could recuperate. The Bachchans took a five year sabbatical and the birthdays once again became a family affair. His 60th birthday however was celebrated in style at the J W Marriott hotel. There were only the crème de la creme of the industry and celebrities from other walks of life. It was a triple event - his birthday, the launching of a coffee table book ‘To be or not to be’ and the surprise of the evening was Amitabh introducing Karishma Kapoor as his bahu-to-be. That birthday had some strong repercussions. People who were invited felt it was a great honour but there were many who were disappointed at being left out.
Last year, Amitabh looked as fresh as ever on his 74th birthday, dressed in an elaborate and elegant kurta. He had in an interview a day before said that any biopic attempted to be made on him would be “a disaster” and he reiterated this view on his birthday too.
Something similar happened during the wedding reception of his son Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai. They had their own list of guests and some very important people were left out. It created a serious controversy and the Bachchans tried to make up by sending an apology letter with a box of sweets. Some took it in the right spirit, but others behaved like rude children and returned the letter and the box of sweets to the Bachchans. When Bachchan could not take it after while, he retorted by saying, “How could I invite the entire industry? I would have had to book a stadium to do that!”
He came up with a very interesting anecdote when he said that he was born on Dussehra Day and was now celebrating his seventy-fourth birthday again on a Dussehra Day. ‘Amitabh’ means someone who was born to conquer darkness and bring light, which is what he has been doing in the lives of people for several generations. He may have had a quiet birthday with his family later in the day, but the crowd outside his current home, 'Jalsa' kept growing and reached unprecedented numbers by evening. His birthday, now a festival almost, was celebrated on the street outside till late in the night. n
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A Four Decade Old
Fan Ritual From celebrity admirers like Madhuri Dixit and Lata Mangeshkar to the common people, the Big B’s fan list stretches into millions...
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eacting to the honour of being awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2015, Amitabh said, “I am extremely overwhelmed. All I am today and whatever I will be is all because of the love that the people have showered on me over the years, and I will never be able to pay them back for it.” The first Asian to have his statue at the famed Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London, Bachchan today has 29 million followers on Twitter, surpassing the 3 Khans. In his inimitable style, he is as amazed as he is humbled by the figure, attributing it once again to the love of the people. Amitabh, who is uncomfortable with the idea of super stardom has over the years however learnt to accept this love, at least in the form of a unique ritual that is now four generations old. Thousands of his admirers, fans and even devotees (he has a temple in his name in Kolkata) collect outside his house. At first it was ‘Prateeksha’ and now the spectacle can be witnessed at ‘Jalsa’. This crowd starts gathering outside his house as soon as it is afternoon and then grows bigger as evening nears. It is not an unwieldy or unruly crowd that might create scenes. It is just a whole lot of eager fans who wait patiently for just one glimpse of the man who has made a difference to their lives. The people can be seen all around his bungalow, on the terraces of the
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neighbouring buildings and even on the trees around! This scene has been a regular feature in the forty year old career of Amitabh Bachchan and he has accepted it as a reality of life. The crowds were at their peak when Amitabh had met with the near fatal accident on the sets of ‘Coolie’ in Bangalore. The crowds grew larger when he returned home from hospital as a mere shadow of ‘the angry young man’. He was so weak that he had to take the support of a walking stick even to get out of bed. The people kept a close watch on his health reports in those days and thronged his house in thousands, praying and waiting for him to come to the gate of his bungalow. And he obliged by waving out to them, sending them into ecstasy and frenzy. He still does. And then they leave in a highly disciplined manner, with a sense of satisfaction and achievement. The years have passed and so much has changed. Amitabh is now a veteran but he is still as popular with children, with youngsters, with the middle aged, his contemporaries and even those older than him. There are other stars in the Bollywood firmament who also have crowds outside their homes, whether it is Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar, but none of them can beat the Big B in his charisma and power to attract people for so many years and with the same interest, love, respect and curiosity. n
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The Bachchan
Bouquets Bachchan's tall, rose bouquets are now a well-known symbol of his appreciation, in Bollywood and elsewhere
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t has been different shades of roses all the way for Mr Bachchan but not without some major thorns that came once in a while. He first saw the beautiful colours of the many kinds of roses when he accompanied his father, the illustrious poet, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan, to all the Kavi Sammelans and Mushairas in different parts of the country. The love and respect of the people for his father found varied expressions but the best was his being greeted with and being offered roses wherever he went. The magic of his poetry may not have brought him much in monetary terms but he received abundant bouquets and garlands. Perhaps Amitabh
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too dreamt of such fame and adulation then. His dreams have certainly come true over the years as he continues to move forward like a mighty wave, even as he turns seventy five. Mr. Bachchan and flower bouquets have had a lasting relationship down the years. He has made roses his best messengers to convey his feelings towards people and events. There was a time when he presented his own brand of big bouquets to some of his favourite filmmakers like Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, Prakash Mehra, Mukul S. Anand, Rakesh Kumar and all those who were responsible
for making ‘the lamboo hero’ and ‘the manhoos hero’ a star among stars and ultimately the Star of the Millennium. The first time I saw the effect his bouquets had was after he saw Mahesh Bhatt’s unusual film, ‘Naam’. The film written by Salim Khan who had just broken away from his partner Javed Akhtar, starred Kumar Gaurav and Sanjay Dutt in the lead roles as brothers. ‘Naam’ was the first film which gave the two newcomers the kind recognition they could perhaps only dream of. Mr. Bachchan saw the film and sent two huge bouquets for both the actors. The young actors were thrilled and Sanjay Dutt was even moved to tears as he said that he would, “Never forget the bouquet of roses sent to him by Mr. Bachchan.” With the passage of time, Amitabh was slowly but surely growing aware of the popularity of the two young Khans, Aamir and Salman who he referred to as the future. After he saw the wonderful comedy ‘Andaaz Apna Apna’, he sent the two Khans his signature bouquets to express his admiration, a memory the Khans still cherish. There are many such examples which can go into a special book called ‘Mr. Bachchan’s Bouquets - His messengers’. A recent such gesture of his which made it to the news was shown to Kangana Ranaut. Mr. Bachchan who has always been impressed by talent was absolutely carried away by the double role played by Kangana in ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’. He sent Kangana two bouquets with two letters of appreciation, one in English and the other in Hindi. Kangana went on record to say that Mr. Bachchan’s appreciation of her work was worth more than any award, adding that she would frame his two letters. I have had my own share of bouquets coming from Mr. Bachchan. The first time was when a cultural organisation wanted to felicitate me for whatever little contribution I had made to film journalism. I said I would accept the award only from Mr. Bachchan, and he luckily acquiesced. When he arrived with his bouquet, it became the focus of attraction. Surprisingly, I found the bouquet missing after the function and was later told that the function’s organiser had quietly taken away the bouquet,
probably to show it to his friends as a bouquet presented to him by Mr. Bachchan! Years ago, when I decided to get married, I had thought of having a very quiet wedding. Mr. Bachchan was the first man I told about my marriage and even though he was very busy he said he wanted to be present at my reception. I had not planned any reception or printed any invitation cards. A friend, however, had organised a hall and spent two days inviting people to my reception, without telling me. Mr. Bachchan had promised to reach the hall at 8.30 pm. I did not tell anyone, not even my wife about his imminent arrival. Mr. Bachchan who did not have the kind of frightening security he now has walked in with a huge bouquet of roses and presented it to us with an envelope which I guess must have been money. The reception ended at 2 am and I looked for Mr. Bachchan’s bouquet, but the man who was collecting the gifts had vanished with Mr. Bachchan’s bouquet and the envelope. Many years passed but I never again saw that man who was so tempted to steal the bouquet gifted to me. Not too long ago, at a grand function to release my book ‘Witnessing Wonders’, Mr. Bachchan once again showed his courtesy through his ‘tall’ bouquet which he sent to the venue. This time I told one of my friends to keep an eye on the bouquet but was in for a rude shock when informed that the lady principal of the college (which was the venue), had asked her man to take away the bouquet sent by Mr. Bachchan! On my twenty-fifth wedding anniversary recently, there were countless bouquets from friends and wellwishers, but as usual the biggest and most colourful bouquet of roses came from Mr. Bachchan. I had already decided that I would personally take all the bouquets to the Holy Spirit Hospital. The nuns at the hospital were happy with all the bouquets but they were absolutely delighted when they saw the bouquet sent by Mr. Bachchan. A unanimous decision was taken by the nuns to place Mr. Bachchan’s bouquet on the altar in the chapel, where they pray every morning. I was happy to see his bouquet given a place so very close to God. The bouquet reportedly remained fresh for many days and was a sight to behold for everyone who visited the chapel. n
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BIRTHDAY WISHES, FROM OLD FRIENDS AND NEW To be known as a household name for more than four decades is no ordinary feat for a man who was humiliated as a man with no future in films, by both the famous and the ordinary people who saw him struggling to reach the place he is in today. The quotes below are only a way of describing him by some of the best, known names who have been closely associated with him. LATA MANGESHKAR: I have been an ardent admirer of Amitabhji. Everything he does and has been doing is a lesson for every human being. I will continue to say that if anyone deserves the Bharat Ratna genuinely, it is Amitabh Bachchan. RISHI KAPOOR: I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with him in more than a dozen films. It has been an experience learning from an institution like him. My luck is still good because even at this age I am working as his seventy-five year old son in a film called ‘102 Not Out’. He is an extraordinary happening in this industry. I am also happy that he has survived all odds physically and otherwise and is standing tall even among the ruling young stars of today. HARIHARAN: Amitabh Bachchan, the name spells respect, aura, art and also a person who you have
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watched your entire life, hence he is a house member. Wow... yes, he is a true legend. I am in awe of him whenever I meet him. I have known Bachchan Sir from the early nineties when I sang for ‘Tere Mere Sapne’, an ABCL production. I have had the pleasure to sing for him in exclusive chamber concerts. He is fond of my live show recordings which I regularly send to him Sir requested me to sing bhajans at his residence in the memory of his father and the evening was a spiritual experience. We bid each other goodbye and late that evening I got a call from him and he thanked me from his heart. That is the greatness of Mr Bachchan. I am sold to him for my entire life. He and Jaya ji are such great hosts. Sir ji, my best wishes to you on the occasion of your 75th birthday. Loads of love, Hariharan & Family ANUP JALOTA: We need people like Amit ji to live forever so the young generation can get inspired and learn the art of living and
working. Punctuality, knowledge, diction, simplicity, he is the best school of the world. He was in the list of candidates for the next President of India. He has truly achieved everything - love, respect and fans around the world. I wish Amit ji a very happy Birthday. CHITTY PILLAI: He is a very professional person where work is concerned. I have done his shows in India and have toured the world with him. Even when he was at his peak, he being a superstar used to reach before us for rehearsals (KalyanjiAnandji banner) and sound check at the stadium. He has a very good sense of rhythm. TINNU ANAND: I was lucky to have played a small part in his career and I feel luckier to see him as one of the greatest living legends today. BAPPI LAHIRI: I scored the music for ‘Namak Halaal’ and I was so carried away by him that I even named my bungalow ‘Namak Halaal’. HEMA MALINI: I could never imagine that my hero in films like ‘Nastik’ and ‘Satte Pe Satta’ would play my elderly husband in ‘Baghban’. I wish him all the best and a very long life. ASRANI: I had seen him visiting the FTII to see his girlfriend Jaya Bhaduri and even though others made fun of him, I saw in him a great actor who would make a difference to Hindi films.
SUKHWINDER SINGH: I happened to sing in films like ‘Hindustan Ki Kasam’ and ‘Baghbaan’ where he played the leading roles. It was a great experience to sing for the biggest superstar of the millennium. My next song for him is in ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ and I am looking forward to it. Wish him a very happy 75th Birthday and a very long and healthy life ahead. JACKIE SHROFF: Arre baapre, woh toh baap hai baap, main chhota admi kya bolu itne bade baap ke baare mein…
Mehul Kumar: A person and artist like Amitabh Bachchan is born perhaps once in a 100 years. It was my luck that Amit ji agreed to do his comeback film with me as a Writer–Director. I worked with Amit ji in ‘Mrityudata’ and my home production, ‘Kohram’, and I have some lovely memories from then. He is a Director’s Artist and never interferes once he has agreed to do a film and has read the script. On his 75th Birthday I wish him good health and success in all he does. He is not only the ‘Son of India’ but a ‘Son of the World’. And the more you ask people to talk about him, the more difficult they find it, because a man like him comes only once in several life times… RAKESH KUMAR: I have directed him in six big films when he was the angry young man. I don’t have to do anything great now, because who gets a chance to direct an icon like him even once? n (Compiled by Sujata Majumdar and Ali Peter John)
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If at First You Don’t Succeed,
Try Try Again
The several failures and rejections that the Big B has faced, make his phenomenal success story only sweeter
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or the stupendous success that Amitabh has achieved today, he has faced as much humiliation. In fact his career graph seems to have very few gentle curves, drastic highs and lows is more like it. He was first famously rejected by Ameen Sayani at All India Radio because his voice was not ‘good enough’. When he came to Bombay, he carried a letter from the then Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi who was a close friend of his mother, Mrs. Teji Bachchan. That did help in opening a few doors but took him only so far. He was advised by a leading filmmaker to go and play football instead,
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because he had long legs or try his luck as a poet since he was the son of one of the greatest poets of India. He was thrown out of offices by filmmakers who found pleasure in humiliating struggling actors. He was replaced by Sanjay Khan in one film after he had already shot for it and completed six reels of the film. He was called names such as ‘Manhoos’ and ‘Panvati’. On top of all this, more than ten of his initial films flopped at the box-office. Once, in the early days Amitabh was driving somewhere in the suburb of Andheri with his father
sitting next to him. An urchin who had seen some of Amitabh’s early films looked at Dr. Bachchan and said, “Yeh kaisa panvati beta paida kiya tune buddhe, na hero hai na villain”. The father and son kept quiet, but that was one moment when Amitabh decided that he would make it in films, if not for anything then to prove that urchin and many others like him were wrong. He wanted more than anything to stand tall in the eyes of his father, his greatest hero. The saga of Amitabh’s early humiliation however continued even after he had become a superstar. He had a brush with real life politics when his childhood friend Rajiv Gandhi asked him to contest the elections as a candidate of the Congress Party in Allahabad and take on a giant of a politician, H.N Bahuguna. It was one of the most eagerly watched elections, also a very tough election, but the results showed how Amitabh had easily decimated his powerful opponent. The election was just the beginning however, as he soon found himself embroiled in the Bofors quagmire, soon after which he quit politics, calling it a ‘cesspool’ to which he would never return again. It was during his stint in politics and the controversies that followed, that he remembered the values his father stood for. One evening, Dr. Bachchan who was very disturbed with Amitabh being abused and maligned in the media and otherwise (ordinary people at airports shouted slogans like ‘chor chor’ if they saw Amitabh) called Amitabh to his room. Amitabh remembers that he felt like he was a school boy, about to get the firing of his life from his father, but nothing like that happened. Dr. Bachchan just asked Amitabh, “Munna, yeh sab jo main sunn rahaa hoon, kya sach hai?” Amitabh left his father’s room silently, taking an oath that he would show his face to his father only after he was cleared of all the controversies and he was, but only after a long ordeal that involved appealing to the highest court in the world. When he was finally acquitted, Bachchan wrote on his blog, "No one shall be able to understand or even remotely fathom, the hours and days and months and years of the anguish of petulant blame, that I had to go through."
Somewhere along the way, the superstar thought of forming his own company ABCL (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited) and one of the first challenges the company took up was to organise the Miss World pageant in Bangalore. The show unfortunately turned out to be a major fiasco both financially and for his image. The films produced by the company ‘Mrityudaata’, ‘Sooryavansham’, ‘Lal Badshah’ and ‘Bade Miyaan Chhote Miyaan’, could not bring back the magic of Amitabh Bachchan. They were flops and consequences were so bad that there were talks about his going bankrupt and his house, ‘Prateeksha’ being mortgaged, but it was his politician-friend Amar Singh who is said to have come to his rescue and saved him from certain disaster, personally and professionally. It was also around this time that Amitabh decided to move away from the limelight. He took a serious break and stayed at home looking after all the problems which Jaya used to look after for years. He enjoyed his sabbatical for almost five years, driving around Mumbai at night and visiting places like Bhendhi Bazaar, Chor Bazaar, Mohammad Ali Road and others that he had only heard about. It was also the time when he grew his grey beard. When he decided he was ready for the next innings of his life, he personally went up to his friend Yash Chopra and asked him for work, which inspired Yash to ask his son, Aditya Chopra to make a film starring Amitabh and Shah Rukh Khan. The result was ‘Mohabbatein’. He received one more life-line when he took to television and agreed to anchor the quiz show, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, and there has been no stopping the man, now in his seventieth decade of life, who is presently hosting the ninth season of the immensely popular show. Mr. Bachchan has literally and figuratively taken the worst kinds of knocks and hits and has been pinned to the ground but has always bounced back, overcoming every challenge that comes his way making him a true ‘Muqaddar ka Sikandar’ all the way... n
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A Master Performer
in Every Way He may have passed from ‘angry young man’ roles to benign salt and pepper ones, but his gaze is still as intense and his performances as power-packed
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he kind of success Mr Bachchan has seen even baffles him sometimes. He has won almost all the awards in the country and even in other countries all over the world. The Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan adorn his list of accolades. He who signed his first film for a total sum of rupees five thousand is now one of the ten richest actors in the world according to the Forbes list. At seventy-five now, he has worked with more than a
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hundred different co-stars and countless directors, towering over the Hindi film industry like a virtual colossus. What is the secret behind his being a timeless attraction, at an age when almost all his contemporaries are no more in the limelight? He has definitely kept up with the times, but more importantly has stayed in sync with his own advancing years. Otherwise, could anyone have imagined that the Vijay of films like ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Deewaar’, ‘Trishul’, ‘Don’ and ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar’ would one day
play an old man in as many films - ‘Baghban’, ‘Baabul’, ‘Black’, ‘The Last Lear’, ‘Paa’, ‘Shamitabh’, and in one of his most outstanding performances as a seventy year old Bhaskor Banerjee, obsessed with the problems of his stomach, in Piku. He has mastered every mannerism of a senior citizen, whether it is the mouth-agape expression or looking over the rim of his spectacles, his nuances are spot on. Amitabh seems to have realized the need to change when he did a film like ‘Black’, in which he played an aging psychiatrist with an alcohol problem who still succeeds in giving a young, blind girl confidence and faith to stand on her own. It was an extraordinary performance that made ‘Black’ an outstanding film. Amitabh had realized and accepted the reality about himself as an actor. He knew that he was no longer ‘the angry young man’, and that he would have to play the kind of roles that suited his image and age. Another golden opportunity came when a new director, R. Balki, challenged the actor in him to play a patient struck by a rare ailment called Progeria. The film was ‘Pa’ and the passion with which Amitabh took up the challenge could be gauged by the five to six hours that he surrendered himself to make-up men from Hollywood, who transformed him into the Progeria-stricken child/man. He had to get used not only to playing his own difficult character but also make it believable that he was the son of Abhishek Bachchan and Vidya Balan in the film. He carried his childlike role with such finesse and confidence that it was difficult to believe that there was actually a sixtysomething man behind that look. It was considered to be one of the most memorable roles of his illustrious career, but it was just like a new beginning for him. Fortunately there seemed to be many young filmmakers who had fresh ideas
for him and he in turn had decided to work only with the new generation of directors who seemed to understand best how to make use of his talent and age. R. Balki, who had gained his confidence with ‘Pa’ came up with one more film for him. This time it was ‘Shamitabh’, an unusual story of an aging man with a rich voice who lends his voice to a young actor with a weak voice (played by Dhanush, the superstar of Tamil films). He tried his best to add life to the role conceived by Balki, but somehow the subject seemed to be too far-fetched for the audience to appreciate and the film failed miserably. Next he played a highly believable character, the ageing John Biswas in ‘Te3n’, who even with all his physical ailments is not willing to give up his fight to find his kidnapped little granddaughter. The way he speaks every line adds more meaning to the scenes than probably the young writers and directors even imagine, when they conceive such characters for him. Sometimes just his looks are enough to effectively convey a range of difficult emotions, as he draws from a million memorable experiences collected during a whole lifetime. Amitabh Bachchan has now grown into a master of portraying all the colours and shades of life, laughter and even death. He uses the famous Amitabh brand of determination and goes the whole hog, on every project he takes up, only to emerge as one of India's most versatile actors, who still draws in the audience, both old and new, simple and discerning. It seems like we are going through a new ‘Amitabh Bachchan era’ with these films. Whoever coined the term ‘Star of the Millennium’ will have to sit down and take note of the new pathbreaking strides the man is taking, and perhaps coin a more suitable phrase. n
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That’s What Friends are For
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Baghban, an old story that might have been made with Dilip Kumar and Bhoothnath, a lesson in friendship, by the Big B.
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ometime in the early seventies, the renowned filmmaker, B.R Chopra who had established his own impressive banner, B.R Films, thought of launching his only son, Ravi Chopra as a director. Ravi, a very dynamic assistant to his father, was interested in making films which were different from those made by his father. He started his career with a film called ‘Zameer’ in which he teamed Amitabh Bachchan who had yet to become famous with the beautiful and experienced Saira Banu and Shammi Kapoor in a very interesting role. The film was very different from all the socially relevant films his father made. ‘Zameer’ was all about action, revenge and love. It unfortunately did not do well at the box-office, but was a good experience for Amitabh who had still a long way to go before he became ‘the angry young man’. Ravi and Amitabh however continued to be good friends, even though they did not work together again for a very long time... Amitabh went on to accomplish dizzying heights as an actor and Ravi continued making films under his father’s banner, the most ambitious film being ‘The Burning Train’ which was a take on ‘The Towering Inferno’, one of Hollywood’s biggest hits. The film which was entirely shot on a speeding train on fire had some leading stars in it, but all the effort made by Ravi and his team failed. It was a major setback for Ravi and for B.R Films and neither father nor son could do anything to bring back the glory of B.R Films. Ravi’s father had been mulling over one of his favourite subjects, ‘Baghban’ which he wanted to make with his favourite actor and friend, Dilip Kumar and Raakhee. The thespian took his own time to work
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on the script with his team of writers and the film kept getting postponed. Meanwhile father and son thought of making ‘Mahabharat’, a major TV serial based on the epic and got busy with it for the next few years. It was during the making of the serial that B.R fell seriously ill and left the the serial in the capable hands of Ravi who took it to lofty heights, thus crafting a chapter in the history of Indian entertainment which will be remembered for all time. B.R’s hopes to make ‘Baghban’ however were still alive and he kept making changes in the script till his health completely failed and he was bed-ridden. A time came when he realized that he would never be able to make his dream film and so once again handed over his favourite subject to his son, Ravi, in whom he had gained all the more confidence after he saw his work on ‘Mahabharat’. Ravi knew it was a big challenge. He also knew that Dilip Kumar was now in no position to play a very vital role in a film. It was at this stage that he remembered his old friend, Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh who had now crossed sixty thought over the subject for some time and finally agreed to do the film. It was a major triumph for Ravi and now that Amitabh had agreed, it was not very difficult for him to get Hema Malini to play his wife. Ravi, Amitabh and Hema Malini worked hard to make the film as realistic as possible and it turned out to be a very successful collaboration which gave Amitabh and Ravi a new lease of life and brought the focus back to B.R Films. Ravi soon worked on
another subject, a film called ‘Baabul’ with Amitabh and Hema Malini again. The bond of friendship between Ravi and Amitabh was renewed and they hoped to work in some more films in the future. Amitabh was very busy after the success of the two films made by Ravi and Ravi, now the head of B.R Films, got involved with making TV serials under his father’s banner. He then planned one more film, this time with Govinda and Lara Dutta. Little did he know that he would have to face the tantrums of Govinda who kept delaying the making of his film called ‘Bandaa Yeh Seedha Saadhaa Hai’. The whole experience of making the film with Govinda was not only humiliating but also told on his health and he collapsed in his office one day. That was the beginning of a very painful life for Ravi, his wife, Renu and their two sons who had just returned after studying cinema. Ravi was diagnosed with lung-collapse. It has been more than five years since he first fell seriously sick and all the efforts made by some of the best doctors in the world have not been able to revive him. No one is allowed to see him because of his extremely bad health. His health also reflected on the health of B.R Films which seemed like it would close down and with it the careers of his two sons, even though they had barely begun. Ravi had plans for them, but now all of that had gone awry. At this stage, a team of advisors decided to make a film called ‘Bhoothnath’, a ghost story. Amitabh was approached to play Bhoothnath and Amitabh who was
very busy agreed, if only because of his concern for Ravi the future of B.R Films. The film was a gamble in more ways than one - directed by a newcomer, Vivek Sharma, it was a child-centric film and Amitabh was playing a role unlike any other that he had done. His superb performance as a grumpy but friendly ghost however carried the film all the way to the top of the charts, This one hit though was not enough to put B.R Films back on the pedestal. There were rumours about the equipment being sold, staff being laid off and finally about the banner being mortgaged or even sold. This time it was the young head of T. Series, Mr. Bhushan Kumar who decided to join hands with Abhay Chopra to finance the making of ‘Bhoothnath Returns’. It was Amitabh again who volunteered to be of whatever help he could and gave them all the dates they needed to complete the film as soon as possible. Many realised that the goodwill of B.R Films and Ravi Chopra was worth more than all the money, after Amitabh led the way. Some leading stars also came in to help. Shah Rukh Khan who had made an extended special appearance in ‘Bhoothnath’ agreed to make another special appearance, this time with Amitabh Bachchan in the same frame. Ranbir Kapoor, the ruling heart throb of the youngsters also played a cameo. Talk about B.R Films being in trouble has now ended, mainly because a friend like Amitabh Bachchan proved what true friendship can do - make the seemingly impossible possible. n
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BACHCHAN’S VERY MUSICAL SIDE Sujata Majumdar writes about some popular songs sung by Amitabh Bachchan, which have become milestones in the history of Hindi film music
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ven though it’s a well-known fact, it never ceases to surprise that the Big B was once rejected during an audition by the All India Radio for his heavy voice. This very quality of his voice however, went on to become his most distinctive feature. Filmmakers who are able to rope him in for a voiceover for their films (‘Lagaan’, ‘Parineeta’, ‘Jodha Akbar’) consider themselves
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lucky. Apart from being a great voice-artist and actor, Bachchan senior is a fantastic singer too. He has sung several songs for himself, in the films that he has starred in. Here are some evergreen numbers that also became chartbusters… ‘MERE ANGNE MEIN’ (Laawaris): The funny lyrics of this song teamed up with his hilarious antics to make
‘MAIN YAHAAN TU WAHAAN’ (Baghban): Yet another soulful song where an ageing Mr Bachchan has beautifully expressed the agony of being away from his wife.
it a classic that is popular even now. Big B did full justice to the song with his uninhibited expressions that accentuated the amusing lyrics like "Jiski biwi moti uska bhi bada naam hai.. bistar pe leta do gadde ka kya kaam hai…" Music Directors Kalyanji Anandji composed the tune in such a way that it would fit the vocal scale and range of Mr. Bachchan. ‘NEELA AASMAAN SO GAYA’ (Silsila): Music Directors Shiv-Hari possibly made the best use of Amit ji's voice in this song by using the fantastic 'kharaj' or low octave scale which is his strong point. The song created such magic that one still gets goose bumps listening to it. The chemistry between Bachchan and Rekha added to the song visually and created magic on screen as well. ‘RANG BARSE’ (Silsila): The song based on Holi is the most popular Bollywood festive song. Even today, no Holi celebration is complete without this song blaring out from the speakers. Big B's voice captures the nuances perfectly as per the situation onscreen. ‘MERE PAAS AAO’ (Mr Natwarlal): The song here reveals the recitation, narration and story telling skills of Amitabh. It is basically a story in the form of a song being narrated by the hero to village kids. The song is a lesson in voice modulation. He has also experimented with producing animal sounds etc. This is still a most popular Bollywood song for kids. ‘JIDHAR DEKHUN TERI TASVEER’ (Mahaan): Big B sang this song so beautifully that his version became more popular than the Kishore Kumar version. The excellent composition by R D Burman and soulful rendition by Bachchan Sr. leaves the listeners awestruck.
‘CHALI CHALI PHIR CHALI CHALI’ (Baghban): Here the Big B proved that he is equally good in contemporary style songs as well. The song broke all records as the Indo western beats and playful vocals of Bachchan created a magically uplifting atmosphere. ‘HORI KHELE RAGHUVEERA’ (Baghban): The song created similar history like Rang Barse. The on-screen chemistry of Amitabh and Hema Malini creates magic in the song based on Uttar Pradesh’s folk music. ‘ROZAANA’ (Nishabd): Big B exquisitely uses his vocal expressions in this song. The film is about a young girl in love with an elderly man. His expressions in the song reveal the dilemma in his mind, a sort of apprehension which cannot be expressed in words. ‘PIDDLEY SI BAATEIN’ (Shamitabh): The versatility of Amitabh Bachchan shines through this song – in the way he has played with the lyrics and playfully accentuated his tonal qualities. His voice breathed life into Illayaraja's music and Swanand Kirkire's lyrics. The visuals are weird yet interesting and go well with the theme of the film. Apart from these full-fledged songs sung by him, his voiceovers in many others have given another dimension to the songs, easily making them stand apart from other numbers. Yeh kahaan aa gaye hum, Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein, Chal mere bhai tere hath jodta hun, are some such. More recently, the devotional tracks sung by him include the Hanuman Chalisa and Ganesh Stotra. Extremely well-received by the young and the old, one can hear them being played publicly, especially on festivals. Or you can hear them anytime on YouTube, for they are setting a record of their own – that of popularizing religious hymns, more than ever before! n
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Amitabh in Bhojpuri films Yes, the Big B has acted in a couple of superhit Bhojpuri films, and that too with wife Jaya Bachchan. Here’s how that happened...
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eepak Sawant was an ordinary make-up artist before he joined Amitabh Bachchan almost 40 years ago. Of the 40 years, he has been the legend’s personal make-up man for 36 years. Deepak first met Amitabh on the sets of ‘Raaste Ka Patthar’ (1972), which also starred Shatrughan Sinha. Shatrughan was a bigger star than Amitabh and managed to get a personal make-up artist for himself but Amitabh did not. And so Deepak was asked to be his make-up artist for the film. Little did Deepak know that it was just the beginning of his long and successful association with the actor.
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The only time he wasn’t working with the mahanayak was when the actor took a sabbatical and did not work for almost five years. All this while, Deepak continued working with artists like Meenakshi Sheshadri and Chunky Pandey. But when the Big B decided on his comeback, Deepak, without thinking twice, gave up all that he was doing, including the beauty parlours he had set up in the distant suburbs, and returned. Deepak has been so dedicated to his boss, Mr. Bachchan that he doesn’t remember even a moment
when he has not been around when Amitabh has called out ‘Deepak’. The man’s devotion goes to such crazy heights that he never let Amitabh know when he had lost his mother. In fact, he completed his job for the day and only then attended his mother’s cremation. It’s his genuine love, respect and admiration for Amitabh over the years that gave him the courage and determination to start a new chapter in his life – he decided to try his hands at production and started with a Marathi (his mother-tongue) film called ‘Akka’. On Deepak’s humble request, both Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan made a guest appearance in the film. When on one of Amitabh’s visits to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh, during the celebration of Chhat pooja Deepak witnessed the actor’s popularity and fan following among the local people, he decided to make a Bhojpuri film for the people of UP, also considering that the market for Bhojpuri films was growing with each passing day. The first film he made was ‘Ganga’, followed by ‘Gangotri’ and the last was ‘Ganga Devi’ (2012). Fortunately, all these films have been super hits but what happened with his film ‘Ganga Devi’ was simply unbelievable. Deepak Sawant’s latest release made history, as it was the first Bhojpuri film to have 8 prints released in Punjab, 50 in Bihar and 35 in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. And that wasn’t it. In a city like Mumbai, the film created havoc all over - a kind of response that a Bhojpuri film never generates in the metro. Almost every show in every theatre was a full house. The tremendous response also brought back ‘House-Full’ boards which could be seen at the theatre entrances after a very long time. Adding to the sight were the black market walas selling tickets in black. Unlike other Bhojpuri films churned out by Bhojpuri filmmakers by the dozens every month, ‘Ganga Devi’ is certainly different, as it deals with the real life story about a woman asserting her importance, against a political background. There are no double-entendre dialogues, vulgar scenes, item numbers or foul language in the film. It is a clean film that was made with the intention to reach out to every member of the family and the
reaction could be seen when one spotted families crowding outside all the single screen theatres, waiting, sometimes for hours to catch any of the shows during the day. For the third time, Amitabh and Jaya were seen together in not just special appearance but full-fledged roles in the film. Amitabh who sung songs in the film, completed his work in just 3 days. The couple has been part of all the films Sawant has produced and Sawant is utterly grateful to them. “I can’t think of making any film without my boss, Amitabh Bachchan and Jayaji. It is their blessings that have made me ‘producer Deepak Sawant’ from an ordinary make-up man,” says Deepak adding, “I can’t stop now. I have to make bigger films and the success of ‘Ganga devi’ has given me all the encouragement.” In spite of all that he has achieved and the image he has created for himself among Bhojpuri filmmakers and even in the Hindi film industry, Deepak has not forgotten his roots. For him, Amitabh’s face will always be his first priority and that is what he is busy with now while the Big B is busy shooting for ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ for almost 18 hours a day. n
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A Man of Words and Ideals Amitabh Bachchan’s thoughts on a father-daughter relationship and advice to his grand-daughters.
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he years have passed and Amitabh is now a grandfather of two lovely granddaughters. He has always been a thinking man, leading by example. With growing concern for women and the issues that surround them, he has taken on the role of a crusader for the rights of women, whether through his films like ‘Pink’ or through his words. The following letter that he wrote to his granddaughters, Aaradhya and Navya Naveli touched many a chord when it was published, and revealed his highly sensitive nature and progressive thought process.
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My very dearest Navya and Aaradhya, You both carry a very valuable legacy on your tender shoulders – Aaradhya, the legacy of your pardadaji, Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan, and Navya, the legacy of your pardadaji, Shri HP Nanda. Both your pardadajis gave your present surnames celebrated fame, dignity and recognition. Both of you may be a Nanda or a Bachchan, but you are also girls going to be women. And because you are women, people will force their thinking, their boundaries on you. They will tell you how to dress, how to behave, who you can meet and
where you can go. Don’t live in the shadows of people’s judgement. Make your own choices in the light of your own wisdom. Don’t let anyone make you believe that the length of your skirt is a measure of your character. Don’t let anyone’s opinion of who you should be friends with, dictate who you will be friends with. Don’t get married for any other reason other than you want to get married. People will talk. They shall say some terrible things. But that doesn’t mean you have to listen to everyone. Never ever worry about log kya kahenge. At the end of the day, you are the only one who will face the consequences of your actions, so don’t let other people make your decisions for you. Navya – the privilege your name, your surname offers you, will not protect you from the difficulties you will face because you’re a woman. Aaradhya – by the time you see and understand this, I may well not be around. But I think what I am saying today shall still be relevant. This may be a difficult, difficult world to be a woman. But I believe that it is women like you that will change that. It may not be easy, setting your own boundaries, making your own choices, rising above people‘s judgement. But you, you can set an example for women everywhere.
“Don’t live in the shadows of people’s judgement. Make your own choices in the light of your own wisdom..” Do this and you would have done more than I have ever done, and it will be my honour to be known not as Amitabh Bachchan, but as your grandfather. Amitabh’s once spoke about the relationship between fathers and daughters which he said was in a way much stronger than any other relationship. He wondered how a father, rich or poor, does everything possible to bring up his daughter, knowing all the time that she has to one day become the daughter of another family. How he keeps hidden that feeling of losing her all the time. How he crumbles and cries when the daughter finally leaves her father’s house to start a new life in the house of her husband. He spoke from his experience with his daughter Shweta who was very close to him and confessed that he too had cried when she finally got married and became Mrs. Shweta Nanda. He added that Shweta is still a very strong pillar of the family and even today whenever there is a problem or a crisis, she is consulted and called home to settle matters in the family. n
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Man on Several Missions There is no need for him to do it, he does it because he must, and for no other reason, it seems
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et’s admit it, if Amitabh Bachchan says something, Indians listen, perhaps more intently than they would listen to any other star or celebrity. Even after all these years, he commands the attention of young and old alike. If that is not true star-power, then what is? And lately he has been putting it to good use by talking on serious, relevant issues like rape and cleanliness. Asked about what freedom meant to him days ahead
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of Independence Day, Amitabh said, “Bharat varsh rape se free ho (I want India to be free of rape).” He blamed India losing respect for women as the reason for this malaise. “We are losing respect for the female gender. It is extremely disgusting and as a nation we at times hang our heads in shame reading about several incidents that should not have happened. All of us
need to educate ourselves to give importance to the women in our lives and to understand that their contribution and presence in a society is as equally important as men. We need to have stronger laws.” The man of the millennium also participated in a twelve hour long discussion on how to add meaning to the Swachh Bharat Campaign. He was the centre of attraction for his ideas in spite of several celebrities from various walks of life taking part in the discussion. On October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, Amitabh Bachchan was in a school called Gandhi Shikshan Sanstha near his house spreading the message of Swachhta (cleanliness) among a group of students. Taking his role as the Ambassador of the Swachata Abhiyaan seriously, he started where he felt it was the best - among children who will go on to shape the future of the land. Amitabh had a heart to heart talk with the little children about the importance of cleanliness in their own surroundings and in the nation as a whole. He told them how his own parents had inculcated the importance of cleanliness in him and his brother, Ajitabh, and how he believed in cleanliness playing a very important part for clean and clear thoughts to take form in the mind. He said he took as much interest in the cleanliness of his house as in the places he worked in, adding that he took particular care of the toilet and saw to it that he never let a drop of water remain on the commode seat or anywhere on the floor, out of concern for the person who was going to use it next.
keep up the spirit of the campaign and were even training his granddaughter, Aaradhya, on the basics of cleanliness. Most of us will remember Amitabh on TV as the UNICEF goodwill ambassador for the polio eradication campaign in India in 2002. Another cause that has the Big B as its official ambassador is the tiger conservation project in Maharashtra state. There are some rumours about Amitabh being a money- minded man and even a miser when it comes to donating for needy causes. According to his makeup man Deepak Sawant who has been with him for the past 45 years, “Nobody knows what or how much he gives because he does it without publicising.” However, no public persona’s life can be completely private, and so there is enough known about his charitable ventures to quash any rumours of the opposite that may be doing the rounds. Bachchan donated rupees 11 lakhs to clear the debts of nearly 40 beleaguered farmers in Andhra Pradesh. He also donated rupees 30 lakhs to clear the debts of 100 Vidarbha farmers. In 2010, he donated rupees 11 lakh for a medical centre at Kochi. He gave rupees 2.5 lakh to Delhi Police constable Subhash Chand Tomar's family, who died after succumbing to injuries during the anti-gang rape protest, following the horrifying 2012 Delhi gang rape.
He urged the students that they should learn to take initiative right now and begin on a mission that would surely have a strong impact on their own future and the future of the country. He advised every student to clean up a certain area saying that it would only be natural that sooner or later the entire country would be clean.
In 2013, Amitabh and his family donated rupees 25 lakh to the charitable trust Plan India, that works for the upliftment of the girl child in India. Amitabh Bachchan donated rupees 11 lakh to the Maharashtra Police Welfare Fund in 2013. Amitabh also supported PETA India's campaign to free Sunder, a 14-year-old elephant who was chained and tortured in a temple in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. After the elephant was freed and rehabilitated he tweeted, “@ Peta India has turned elephant Sunder’s home into free-roaming, forested sanctuary... feeling good I contributed to this cause!”
Amitabh also emphasised that he alone was not the Ambassador for Swachhta but every Indian, man, woman and child were ambassadors for this very noble and basic cause. He also said that he and the Bachchan family were doing their best to
In 2014, it was announced that he had recorded his voice and lent his image to the Hindi and English language versions of the Teach AIDS software, an international HIV/AIDS prevention education tool that was developed at Stanford University.. n
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Behind the scenes Bachchan’s long-lasting relationships with his helpers and their loyalty towards him reveals more about his persona than mere words can
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mitabh bought his first, small imported car when he lived in an apartment called ‘Mangal’ in Juhu. His driver from those times, Nagesh Shetty, worked with him till recently when in 2006 he suddenly passed away and now it is his son Rakesh Shetty who has been the Big B’s right hand man for the last ten years. About his boss, he says, “Hamaare sahab toh hamaare liye bhagwaan hai, unhone kabhi bhi hum logo ke saath naukro ke tarah vyvhaar nahi kiya, bhagwaan unko
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lambi umar de”. The first security man Amitabh had around him was Vaz who had served in the Indian Air Force and he was in complete charge of everything to do with Amitabh’s security, even when his parents shifted to Mumbai and then when he had his two children, Shweta and Abhishek. Amitabh ‘found’ Sheetal Jain at the Ranjit Hotel in Delhi and thought he was perfect to become his manager, which Sheetal was until two years ago when
things completely changed. Amitabh and his family first lived in ‘Prateeksha’ and then moved to ‘Jalsa’. Between the house and his huge office named ‘Janak’ there are many helpers in charge of different departments. Among the staff at ‘Jalsa’, besides Rakesh Shetty, there is Raju Gauda who has been Amitabh’s chauffeur for the last twenty five years, Subhash More, Deepak Sawant, his make-up man for more than four decades and his genuine and sincere Man Friday, Pravin Jain who seems to know the real side of Amitabh better than most. Some other men who were managers in his office at ‘Prateeksha’ earlier were Khare who left to join as the secretary of the Shiv Sena supremo, Bal Thackeray and Gangadharan. Deepak, who has been his make-up man since he saw him in ‘Raaste ke Pathhar’, 45 years ago, has literally seen him up close and had the rare privilege to observe the consummate actor at work. According to him Amitabh is still as particular about rehearsing his shots as he was all those years ago. “Other actors just keep taking several takes but he focuses beforehand on the dialogue, the acting and the props. As a result when he actually takes the shot, it is almost perfect. He is constantly honing his skill of not only acting but also reacting.” Deepak who has grown old and learnt much working by his side, also reveals that there is nothing Amitabh enjoys as much as his work. In fact, if he doesn’t work, he is likely to get upset. “And there is nobody who would sacrifice so much for their helpers. He has worked for free in four Bhojpuri films that I produced. If I had to give up my life for him today, I would,” he adds earnestly. When it comes to make-up, it makes up for only 25 percent of Amitabh’s persona or character, according to Deepak. “Amitabh has got no flaws, in fact he has got more than most people’s share. He is educated, cultured, polite, tall and good looking, all rolled into one.” The only problem or rather small complain that Deepak hesitantly speaks of about his boss is that Amitabh goes into silent mode when he is angry. “He just stops speaking if he is upset and it is a dilemma
for us because we don’t know why or what has made him angry. I feel he should let us know instead of putting us in this situation. Also he should take decisions after deliberating like a judge and not after just listening to what anyone says.” And now, there is Rosy Singh, a most efficient manager whose working style and attitude I have experienced and admired. I sometimes wonder if Amitabh today would be able to manage himself and his many activities without having a soft and sweet but also stern manager like Rosy Singh. Most of these are men and women who have been working for Amitabh and the Bachchan family for years altogether because the Bachchans are not known for sacking any of their workers. They are looked after very well and what they find most important about working with Amitabh and his family is the fact that they are all treated like part of the family. On this birthday, Amitabh Bachchan will have millions of people praying for his long and healthy life, but the best and most sincere prayers will be those of all the small and simple people who have stood behind him during good times and bad times, during the time when he was an ‘angry young man’ to now when he is the lovable grandfather of Navya Naveli and Aaradhya. It would not be surprising if his incredible success and stature made him act high-handed towards his staff, but he has once again set an ideal example with his down-to-earth nature and proved that the best place for charity to begin, is at home. . n
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He is Human, After All The Big B is known for his disciplined lifestyle, but few know that he is asthmatic or that only 25 percent of his liver is functional
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mitabh Bachchan may have all the wealth and resources at his disposal but he is known to follow a very simple lifestyle. Though he was a nonvegetarian and also took to alcohol during his heydays, he gave up both smoking and drinking after a drastic accident in Goa that involved him and one of his best friend’s, Amjad Khan. These days Mr Bachchan lives on a very strict diet which means he is not allowed even a cup of tea. Meals are basically lots of green vegetables and pulses that he carries with him from home. They are served to him at the appropriate times by Pravin, his Man Friday who accompanies him everywhere and has been with him for more than thirty- eight years now. Amitabh suffers from asthma and is a survivor of tuberculosis. Once when asked how he managed to keep himself fit despite all the physical complications, he had brought out a basket full of medicines and had asked, “What are all these for?”
the 18th floor of the now defunct Sea Rock Hotel in Bandra. They suddenly saw Amitabh reeling with discomfort as he had suffered a severe asthmatic attack. The situation was so unbearable that he ran towards the edge of the floor almost as if he wanted to jump off! It was Shashi Kapoor who pulled him back to safety, and for this he has always been grateful to Shashi.
“He hits the gym at JW Marriott every morning at 0530 and has complete control on his vegetarian diet.”
It was while he was at the Breach Candy Hospital after his ‘Coolie’ accident that the doctors also diagnosed him with Myasthenia Gravis, a rare disease of the muscles, which added to the bouts of asthma he kept suffering from. According to Shashi Kapoor and the late director S. Ramanathan they were once witness to one such serious attack of asthma. It happened when they were shooting with Amitabh on
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Though Bachchan is now completely off drinks, he sometimes has a glass of white wine. He hits the gym at JW MARRIOTT every morning at 0530 and has complete control on his vegetarian diet. But then how can he now be a victim of cirrhosis is a question many who have known him are asking. Amitabh has admitted to a scary bit of news that only 25 percent of his liver is functioning.
He may not be in the pink of health at 75, but his sheer will-power has helped him to walk out of the jaws of death more than once. He may suffer from different kinds of ailments but he manages them with his disciplined lifestyle and of course the ubiquitous stash of pills. He can easily rest and take a backseat when it comes to work, which is what many in his position would probably do. Ask him the secret of his energy though, and he points above to God and talks about the prayers and good wishes of the millions who admire him. n
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AMITABH, The Writer Reproduced below is an article written by Amitabh Bachchan, which first appeared in the December 1963 issue of the Sherwoodian, Bachchan’s school magazine. In it, Amitabh describes a visit to his alma-mater on Founder’s Day, five years after he passed out
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he afternoon of 3rd June saw me climbing up the stairs to the new Infirmary Block with a feeling of elation – wonder who all have landed up? Awfully quiet up there..I hope
they...
A bare hall confronted me. Elation took a step back to disappointment, as I saw just 3 occupied beds in one
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corner – the only signs of OSS (Old Sherwoodians Society) inhabitation! As the evening wore on, however, things (they sure looked things) began to show up. Amongst the first was Wali Khan, a well trimmed fungus now adorning his smiling face; then came Ajit Mukherjee (Muko), Jahota, Chimni, Arora, Siddiqui, Charlie Dhawan,
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Sabharwal and Baby Bach. Everyone looked changed, but still very much a Sherwoodian. The first night almost turned out to be a near riot. Muko, returning late from the night show, suddenly realized, just before turning in that his blankets were missing! Dhawan, evidently exhausted by the long walk home, flopped into bed with a bang, but within a second was seen out of it, holding onto his head. ‘Who's jacked my pillow?’ he groaned. There was an uneasy silence for a moment. Then Sabharwal’s meek voice was heard: ‘I say fellows, have you seen my, er…pyjamas?’ A frantic search followed. Everyone was out of the bed, turning things over. I said everyone, it should have been almost everyone though, for one heap on a particular bed remained unperturbed. A rhythmic but quiet snore, the type one emits after a good two to three hours sleep, was emerging from under the blankets. Blankets! Muko’s eyes blinked. He grabbed at them and pulled them off, and there, comfortably dressed in Sabharwal’s night pants, resting his head on Charlie’s dunlopillo, was Birendra Singh, the latest addition to the OSS group! Thus began the Founders Week for the ‘Past’. The traditional matches this year were restricted, unfortunately, to just one match, hockey, the main problem being lack of players. On the fifth evening however, a fairly competent and colourful OSS XI turned out on the field. The whistle for bully-off sounded at 4 pm sharp, and within minutes, much to our surprise the ball was seen in the Present’s D, with an aggressive Rekhari behind it, and just three objects in sight before it, the two legs of the goal and a bewildered goal keeper, Puri, in between them. Rekhari swung hard and missed and the Past had lost their only hope of a secure start. The incident seemed to have spurred the Present into action, for a fierce attack followed and at 4.10, Wali Khan heard the familiar sound of the board from behind him. A good bit of combining by the Present
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and Tewari did the needful, the Present were one up. Two minutes later, the Present were back in the OSS ‘D’. Off a lovely centre from left out C.S. Gill, Misra had inflicted the second blow. I don’t think the Past ever really came out of this one, and their game lost punch. Birendra and Rekhari, as backs, were putting in a good performance and Raza in the forward line was making numerous solo attempts at equalizing but with no one to assist him he was invariably outnumbered. The game drifted from side to side. A little before halftime, the ball was making headway for the OSS goal. The sound of the stick and the board almost intermingled, and smiling Ken Khan was running back to his position, with the rest of the team bestowing their shabash on his back. Wali Khan, dexterously stroking his fungi, was left wondering as to how it had all happened. Revived somewhat by the Panamas and Cools that fumed during the break, the Past were back, still looking a hostile lot. The game was settling down and the OSS were getting the hang of things. Wali was back in his 1956 form and Birendra and Mr Miller were doing well as backs. Up ahead Raza was trying to do justice to the numerous passes he was getting, Sahota, Bhargava and Rekhri now assisting him, but nothing materialized. The Present very nearly added another to their score, off a penalty bully, but Rekhri avoided further trouble. The match ended in favour of the Present and I think they deserved every one of the three they put in. The OSS Dance on the 7th was a grand affair. Our sincere thanks to Mr Liewelyn, Mr Thompson, Mr and Mrs Bentinck and Mr and Mrs Duckett, under whose help the evening turned out to be a memorable occasion. This marked the end of week full of joyous excitement. n Courtesy: Pradeep Chandra (AB The Legend, A Photographer's Tribute)
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THE BACHCHAN BLOG
For those who don’t yet follow Mr. Bachchan’s writings, here are some of his reflections which he diligently shares on his blog
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f there is one man who is always in the news, inspiring headlines in print or now the social media, it is none other than the Big Bachchan. Part of his enduring allure is that he has kept in tune with the changing times. Which seventy-five year old updates his blog regularly or tweets for that matter? Instead of living in the past, he has embraced the new, and makes use of it whole-heartedly to give expression to his feelings. Bachchan, always in the
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public eye, is otherwise known to be a very private person. His blog perhaps allows him to say what he wants, the way he wants - instead of it being twisted into something else by the media. And for his fans his writings are insights into his life, something they just can’t get enough of. For many, it has become a part of their daily lives to go through his blog. And he shows the same
dedication and sincerity as a blogger that he shows as an actor or as an Indian who has spoken out on a wide variety of subjects at different times in his career. He has blogged on possibly every subject that needs to be spoken about, from sports which is something that really piques his interest to topics of national concern. A sampling of some of his blog entries gives a peek into the mind of the man who rules the heart of millions… On PV Sindhu’s grace after her Olympic loss So, yes we won another...the Silver in badminton for Women...the winner broke down after her victory and the one that lost, our very own, PV Sindhu walked across to her, consoled her, got her up on her feet, picked up her racquet that had been flung away in the glory of victory by her opponent, and put it in the kit of the Spanish, Carin. That is what INDIA is...culture and dignity, even in a loss! Proud of you Sindhu...so much to learn from you, you have demonstrated to generations of Indians and the world, in one fell stroke. You are a champion in my eyes and shall always remain one. On Sport Dignity resides in culture of any nation. Time and evolution bring that to ethical prime, but ethics is not always the inventory of a country or community. There is more to it, much more... Italy identifies with fast cars, fashion, food and cuisine. France is known for its inherent beauty and chic and is the epitome of the good life. Germany brings determination and its cars too, its systematic efficiency, as do England, China and Japan and so many other countries. But the other mode of ethics that is important is sports. Billions follow and patronize it...sportsmen’s passion keeps it alive, and their international presence brings identity, distinctiveness. Brazil, Germany, Italy and others bring me closer to Football, Jamaica quite obviously to track and field events thanks to a certain Mr Bolt, Usain Bolt!
Whhhooooosshhhpp... that almost sounded like “Bond, James Bond” Australia at one time to, tennis, swimming, cricket, Russia to almost every sport in the universe, but in particular ice hockey, Japan and East European countries to the aesthetics of gymnastics, and so on. Sport - the light that shines even beyond the dignity and culture of a nation. Its development is therefore a prime need to create the recognition of identity... On what is needed to excel in sports Excellence in sport just does not happen because you represent a particular part of the universe. It comes from selection and guidance, from infrastructure and training, from patronage and interest, and from the country fighting for its recognition and value. Providing facilities, structuring performance with professional guidance, psychological intricacies, and above all the love and admiration of people shall give them strength to excel and succeed. A billion voices heard together can change the course of rivers, move mountains, and it can also speedily propel the athlete towards perfection and victory. Incentives changed the Indian Cricket team from 99.9 percent Shivaji Park, Mumbai, to the smaller towns talent, one that now rules the world in the game. We can do it, and we will. 2024 Olympics, watch out for India...not the next one in Japan 2020, but 2024, wherever it be. On growing old in showbiz The magazines that feature the young generation, their styles and moods and their flair and passions, have no business to be wanting to feature a 74 year old for them...but they do! And I am certain that even though sufficient time has been spent with them and their entire creative team for most part of the day today, they must now be going through their efforts, desperately trying to figure, how they can dismiss this terrible error on their part and destroy the photo shoot with me... entirely!
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That, ladies and gentlemen of the Ef family, is that questioning look at the young team that plonks itself in a desperate situation, in front of the largish computer screen, screening the efforts of great photographer and friend Avinash Gowariker wondering how on earth are we going to let me know that there has been a huge mistake in even considering me for their cover picture… No, no, no, the darkest of glares shall not be able to hide the truth. It is somewhat difficult to face rejection, but just because you have blinkers on does not mean that the race cannot be run and lost... The time and effort of the make up, the light and the shadow of the ‘cutters’ that lightmen control are just a trial for them that stand behind in snigger mode, waiting when this ordeal for them is over and we wrap. Apprehension prevails. Doubts and weaknesses of the condition I find myself in. Well, what can one do? Stick it out I guess, and hope... On the Artwork of friend, Dilip, and the wonder of technology Scrambling out from this and charging off to a painting exhibition of friends Shobha De and her husband Dilip. The wife is along and the rush and the crush at the venue is palpable. This side of Dilip, who was in Kolkata during my time, officious, determined in his shipping job as owner managers, and to whom we as a Company supplied freight, was unknown to me. His creative experiments with a mobile phone are simply quite remarkable. Yes... all that you see on the walls and in my hands as a gift, are all done on the mobile phone. Quite, quite amazing. On Colonization I am pre Independence born. 1942. For 5 years I grew up in my own country which was ruled by another country. The British ruled us for about 200 years. I wonder how those that rule other countries feel, when they capture, invade, take over another’s land. I have not seen India do that so I cannot comment. India has never invaded another. Been in battle yes, but never invaded another. How does it feel when you are told the land is yours but not yours?
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History is filled with similar incidents...the desire to capture another, to rule, to take away its glory and wealth, to subject it to systems that are dictated, not by their own, but by alien ones. And as time passes, how does the reconciliation take place? Laws, cultures, institutions, infrastructures built by them that came, exist and prevail, and even flourish, not just here in my land, but in each other land subjected to colonial temper. Once liberated norms that existed during the rule still not obliterated. Migration and asylum seekers abounded after independent thought took over. Norms, culture, systems, language of those that came abound wherever colonies were built. There was distinction between them and us...yet most of the temperament of those subjected, became the temperament of the coloniser. The obvious difference noticeable earlier is now blurred... WHY? Why did invasion occur, why did those that lived in their own, shift to another region? Was it for material gain, for better value, for enhanced living? Hmmm…!! Wars and adventures still occur, but never on the scale of the last confrontation. Too many international conventions and politics come in the way, though not necessarily to stop, not always for the pronouncement of peace, or to stop the materialism that still looms large...
“Why did invasion occur, why did those that lived in their own, shift to another region? Was it for material gain, for better value, for enhanced living?” On being limitless There was time when you could establish a country from certain distinct attributes...not any more. Sports: Rio2016, visible each hour of the day, as I watch, I cannot make a distinction...there is equality and oneness. A French or a British sports team possesses origin
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nationalities of the other. A Sikh of Indian origin becomes Commander in Chief of the Canadian Army, as does a Sikh or a migrated Pakistan player become part of the team of England and South Africa. Brazilian born and brought up are now Italian, and so on… I watch the Rio Olympics. Some win, not all, but each winner gets the embrace of the loser, on track, on pool, on ring, on mat. Talent, strength and superiority is acknowledged and lauded, each hour of the event, in a spirit that gets labelled as ‘sportsmanship’. Each ring of the 5 continents, the symbol of the Olympics, remains ever intertwined, each ring embracing the other. When do we stop aggression with each other and embrace, it is in sportsmanship mode, in competition, not in war, to win but also acknowledge when we lose, to be interlinked in feeling and togetherness. We, species, made boundaries, we designed limits and borders, stated ‘theirs’ and ‘ours’, demarcated the fence and the fence defines limits. Remove limits...it causes grief and pain... Just begin Somewhere the pain of a thought creeping in that we may not have sufficient time to do all that we wish. So what, what do we do? I say we start on one task, just one. It could be as mundane as cleaning up the environment that surrounds you, desk, home, work place... all, and soon it is discovered that the mind and the system begins to work, not just in the way you wish it to, but perhaps better. There is clarity of speech, thought and deed. Decisions come easily and firm, and with it the need to begin that which may have remained dormant till now. On delegating Working with me is a disclaimer. No one works for me. We work alone, we all do. Delegation is a good sounding managerial term, which each head of department understands. Its execution though is personal and individual. Delegation is easy, following up on that which has been delegated, comes back to the individual. It needs and requires monitoring, so
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who does it? On the importance of different perspectives I work simultaneously on various projects which capture history, politics, society and details of them, for a construct that shall immortalise it for posterity, and running through the copious pages of the narration, one suddenly is made aware of events that had never been seen from that perspective. Not only does it awaken our senses towards times of that time, but of the conditions in which they took place, and you discover that the other point of view was valid too and of great value. Those principles could well be of great input to circumstances that we face today...and that is most rewarding and educative.
“For some reason one finds oneself sharing more now than we did earlier. Why? I wonder. There does not seem to be any distinct reason for it , but it is there and it is prevalent and it is sincere and of merit.” I cherish those facts of information now, and lament the opportunities lost in its knowledge when they did take place, or the complete failure to give importance to it. But I do feel that it’s not and never too late to get acquainted with history and the factual occurrences, in order that we may at some point of time be in a position to pass them on to the young at home. For some reason one finds oneself sharing more now than we did earlier. Why? I wonder. There does not seem to be any distinct reason for it , but it is there and it is prevalent and it is sincere and of merit. So, setting example here, I wish to share with the Ef my extreme desire to get to bed and rest the night out!! On women Be in peace, be free from illness and despair, be in respect, especially for the female gender for they are half our strengths. Make them know that, through gesture, speech, deed and care. Love ... n
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DAY SPECI AL RTH BI
Lesser Known Facts
about the Big B ● H is father wanted to name him ‘Inqilaab’ (revolution) but it was on the recommendation of his fellow poet Sumitranandan Pant that he was named Amitabh (the enlightened one). ● H e has a double M.A to his name and wanted to be an engineer. ● H is voice had preceded all his success. It was used for the voice-over of ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’ the last film in Hindi made by Satyajit Ray, starring Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan and Shabana Azmi. e used to play the sitar and was self-taught at ● H the instrument. Photography used to be one of his other avid interests. ● H is first salary in films was rupees three hundred which was a paltry sum when compared to the four figure salary plus a house and car that he got when he worked at Bird & Company as a junior executive in Calcutta. ● ‘ Saat Hindustani’ made by K.A Abbas in 1969 was his first film for which he was paid rupees five thousand. He was paid rupees seven thousand for ‘Anand’ and rupees twelve thousand for ‘Bombay To Goa’. ● H e did not know the basics of dancing when he had to dance to the song, ‘Dekha na haaye…’ in ‘Bombay To Goa’. The heroine of the film Aruna Irani, his friend Anwar Ali and the others kept encouraging him till he got his steps right. That was when he decided to perfect his dancing and then
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went on to be known as one of the best dancing stars. e was strongly supported by the ruling comedian ● H of the times, Mehmood and his younger brother Anwar Ali and lived in Mehmood’s house for a while and even shared some clothes with the two brothers. ● H is life and career changed after ‘Zanjeer’ in which he was named Vijay and then he was named Vijay in twenty -eight other films. ● H e sang in his own voice for the first time in the film ‘Mr. Natwarlal’, teaming up with Rekha, his heroine in several hits after that. Singing his own songs became highlights of many other films. ● H e has gone on record to appreciate the contribution made to his career by filmmakers like K.A Abbas, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra and Mukul Anand among others. He now wants to work with the new generation of actors which has left many of his earlier directors who still want to work with him, bitter. ● H e has been grateful to music directors KalyanjiAnandji and the singer Kishore Kumar who gave him the kind of songs that suited his personality and the kind of characters he essayed. or the song, ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala’ he ● F supposedly had 12 of the real kind of kathawala paans, to get into the mood to sing and dance to the song.
● T he authorities of Scottish Orphanage in Mahim, a school which his children went to, requested him not to drop his children, Shweta and Abhishek to school because of the mass hysteria his arrival created. He lived in a rented bungalow in Madh Island after his near fatal accident on the sets of ‘Coolie’ in 1982, and sent his children by ferry to reach Versova from where a car dropped them to school. ● He is one actor who has done the maximum number of double roles. ● He has won the National award on four occasions. He has won the Filmfare award for fourteen performances. He has been honoured with the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. A poll conducted by BBC named him “The Actor of The Millennium”. The French Government honoured him with its highest civilian award, “Legion de Honneurs”. He was chosen to carry the torch at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic games. The number of doctorates he has received are legion and so are the number of books written about him in different languages all over. His films have been dubbed in all the major languages of the world. ● He considers Waheeda Rehman to be the most beautiful woman and feels privileged to have worked with her in some very good films. ● A t the age of fifty-eight he jumped from a height of thirty feet without using a double. In most of his action scenes during his days as ‘the angry young man’, he did all his risky scenes without a double and asked those fighting him to attack him as realistically as possible, which is perhaps why he received that almost fatal blow from a strong man like Punit Issar during the action sequence in ‘Coolie’ which nearly killed him. e had to be provided with seventeen bottles of ● H blood when he was fighting his battle with death at the Breach Candy Hospital. ● He still maintains a very strict regimen. His day
starts at five-thirty am when he goes to the gym at the JW Marriott. He travels between his house ‘Jalsa’, his earlier house ‘Prateeksha’ and his office ‘Janak’ where he has a meeting with his very efficient secretary, Ms. Rosy Singh to know his schedule for the day, then follows it very strictly. His passion to be punctual at work and at any event or function has been the same for the last four decades. ● He hopes to keep working till he is physically and mentally fit and is eager to play the kind of roles actors at his age have never played or find it risky or difficult to play. ● He who has had a stormy relationship with the media in the past, now knows keeps in constant touch with both the print and the electronic media. He is an actor who is most in demand when it comes to promoting products, tourism and public interest issues. ● Amitabh was a very good friend of both Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi and spent a lot of time with them. Dara Singh was their favourite hero and they did not miss any wrestling bout of Dara Singh’s in Delhi. ● Amitabh has done more than fifteen films each with both Rishi Kapoor and his uncle Shashi Kapoor. In fact, during the eighties and nineties seeing Amitabh and Shashi Kapoor together had become a regular feature. There was even a joke in the industry that Amitabh carried a signed letter from Shashi Kapoor, who had agreed to do any role in a film which had Amitabh in it. arveen Babi also claimed to be in love with him ● P and then vanished from the country only to come back to make all kinds of wild and crazy allegations against Amitabh. At one of her press conferences she accused Amitabh of transplanting a transmitter into her head which was the reason why she had become a psycho case. No one was willing to take her story seriously and she gradually destroyed herself, and was found dead in her Kalmal Estate apartment days after she had died. n
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Down Memory Lane Ali Peter John reminisces some of the many memorable moments he spent with the superstar
M
r. Bachchan and I go back a long way. He started his career with the writerfilmmaker K.A Abbas and I too started work with the great but simple man called Abbas. We called him ‘Maamujaan’ but he was more than a ‘Mamujaan’ (maternal uncle). He was our ‘jaan’ as he literally gave us a new life. Amitabh took off with his film ‘Saat Hindustani’ while I learnt everything I could from him without caring about the remuneration. Amitabh went on to become the star of the millennium. I became a journalist and we have been in touch all this while. I remember the many times he has gone out of his way to keep promises he has made to me, following my various requests to him.
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The first time was when I was chosen to be presented with an award named after our guru K.A Abbas. The organizers wanted me to receive the award from the then chief minister but I was adamant that I would receive it only by Amitabh Bachchan. They told me that in that case I would have to talk to Amitabh myself and I did. He agreed even though he was very busy. On the morning of the function, I dropped in at “Prateeksha” and was told that he was sleeping after a late night at an awards function. Because he felt that he should have mentioned Anil Kapoor in a speech he made the previous night, he first went to Anil’s house and then drove to the venue of my function. I remember the atmosphere being supercharged when he arrived. In his speech he
praised me as a person and as a journalist and I was thrilled. That morning I was floating. Years later, I was told to invite him for a party hosted by my company. It was a time when my parent paper was going hammer and tongs against him because of his alleged involvement in the Bofors case. I invited him and he said he had another appointment but would try and make it. The party started as other big stars and filmmakers walked in and everyone was in high spirits, Some of my colleagues taunted me from time to time, saying things like, “Kahan gaya tumhara Amitabh Bachchan?” At 10 pm sharp I saw a tall figure standing all alone at the gate. Amitabh Bachchan had arrived and the party took on a very different colour even with some leading stars clamouring to be photographed with him and asking him for autographs. Another time, it was one of our award functions at the Centaur Hotel. Pritish Nandy also had his own award function the same evening and my bosses felt that all the big stars and especially Amitabh would go to Nandy’s function at The Leela. Tanuja, one of the first stars who had attended Nandy’s function rushed to our function later and I remember her saying, “Arre, wahaan toh paani bhi nahin peene ko mila”. Though it was 2 am, I still told people to wait because I had faith in Amitabh’s coming to our function. At 2.30 I saw his van driving into the gate of the Centaur Hotel. He alighted followed by Jaya, Danny Denzongpa and their common friend Romesh Sharma. The party started all over again and lasted till the early hours of the morning. Once on Republic Day which also happened to be the annual day for workers in the press, I had requested Amitabh to write a message which could be read out at the annual day celebrations. He said, “Why write, I will come myself”. I couldn’t believe it, and when I told the workers about what had happened, their joy knew no bounds. But when the owner of the media group
I worked for came to know, he made a major issue out of it. He said he would certainly not join in the celebration if Amitabh was coming. This was a result of the ongoing war being waged by the group against Amitabh and his friend, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. I was in a dilemma. How would I tell Amitabh? I went to a local telephone booth and called him but before I could say anything, he said, “Ali, I knew this was going to happen. Anyway, you just don’t worry and please give my best wishes to all the workers”. A group of young boys came to me once, representing their coaching school called Avi’s Classes and they wanted Amitabh to be the chief guest for the tenth anniversary function of the Classes. I knew that it was difficult but upon seeing the hopeful faces of those young boys, I decided to try. He was shooting in the quarries at Chandivali. I luckily had an autorickshaw driver who was a die-hard fan of the star, and when I told him I was going to see Amitabh he forgot all about his business and stayed with me till I had accomplished my feat. I told Amitabh about the function, he asked me for the details and said, “Go home and tell Khare, my secretary about the function”. I did as I was told. The boys from Mulund came to my house at 9 am on the day, dressed in their best clothes and in an old Maruti van. I reached “Prateeksha”. He was sleeping, but he got my message and within ten minutes he was downstairs, dressed in a white pyjama and kurta and wearing ordinary sandals. He said he was sorry about the delay and asked me where my car was. I looked at him helplessly and showed him the van in which the boys were waiting. He just got into a Maruti 800 and said, “Let’s go”. He drove at breakneck speed and the security men found it difficult to keep up with him. Whenever they neared us, they asked me where I was taking him. We reached Mulund and there were thousands of students, teachers and parents waiting for him. He made a beautiful speech about how it was very important to start any function or even a celebration in the morning, as that was the best time of the day.
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The function ended and the crowd broke into a dance to celebrate. Amitabh too was whistling and humming and was in a very good mood till we got stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way back. He suddenly said, “I am in trouble, Ali, please call my security people and ask them to clear the traffic so that I can move fast. I have had an attack of asthma”. The rest of the drive was like a scene from one of his films. He was driving like a man who had lost control over his movements. We somehow reached “Prateeksha” and he got out of the car and collapsed. I have never been so happy and so scared at the same time. In another incident, it was just after he had resumed shooting after the near fatal accident during Prakash Mehra’s “Sharaabi”. A doctor- friend who had previously asked me to request actors like Sunil Dutt and Dharmendra to inaugurate different wings of his hospital now wanted Amitabh to inaugurate the I.C. U of his hospital in Four Bungalows. I was hesitant, but the doctor was almost “dying”. Amitabh was shooting at Film City. I told him about the doctor’s request and he said, “come to my Madh Island Bungalow” (he and his family were living in a bungalow at Madh on the advice of doctors). A group of doctors followed me all the way to Madh. It was Ramola, the wife of his brother Ajitabh who saw me first and asked me what I wanted. I told her my story and she said, “He returned home only at 4 am. How can you be so cruel and wake him up at this time? You go and sit in that chair, I cannot help you.” I didn’t really know her and felt desperate till I saw Jaya coming down the stairs. She too inquired and then went up. Amitabh was down within fifteen minutes, again dressed in a white pyjama and kurta and again asking me about my car. “It is Sunday and I have given a holiday to the drivers. Anyway get into that white Ambassador,” he said. He was at the wheel and our long drive began with the doctors trying to keep up with his speed. We reached somewhere near Four Bungalows and we
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could see thousands of people lined up all along the road and the crowd kept growing larger as we reached the hospital. He was angry because he had told the doctor not to publicize the event but the doctor in his enthusiasm had done just that. Seeking help from the police he somehow managed to get into the hospital while I was flung into the stampeding crowd which almost crushed me. The next morning he called me and said, “Kamaal ke aadmi ho, mujhe chhod diya aur khud bhaag gaye.” How could I tell him what I had to go through to stay alive? I can go on about such stories, but must end with this one. I had tried my best to get a road in Juhu named after our guru, K.A Abbas. I knew and believed that a function like this could not be complete without the presence of Amitabh. I told him about the programme and how mentioning his name had made the corporator and his entire team work doubly hard to get the road and the marble plaque ready in just two days. He was very busy shooting but managed to reach the venue exactly at the pre-decided time. He first walked the same way he had walked to reach Abbas Sahab’s office on the fifth floor, in a building without a lift, where he had signed “Saat Hindustani”, his first film. It was like a walk down memory lane for him. He later unveiled the plaque together with Rishi Kapoor who represented the Kapoor family because Abbas Sahab and Raj Kapoor had a very strong association as a writer and director team. It is not the same any more. Amitabh has grown into a much bigger star than he was in his younger years. He has absolutely no time. I too take a long time to think before I make any requests or ask him for any favour for me or anyone else. In fact, when I last called him to write a piece for my magazine, he replied in a message, “I have absolutely no time. I am very busy.” Totally understandable when it comes to him but perhaps no other star would be in a position to say that at seventy- five. n
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Courtesy: Pradeep Chandra
DAY SPECI AL RTH BI
Amitabh Bachchan – The Eternal Light Bachchan’s starpower has attained mythic proportions as he continues to be a ‘one man industry’, an epithet given to him by French Director, Francois Truffaut. Pradeep Chandra attempts to understand the phenomenon ‘I’ve been scarred and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered. Snow has friz me, Sun has baked me, Looks like between ’em they done Tried to make me Stop laughin’, stop lovin’, stop livin’— But I don’t care! I’m still here!’ –Langston Hughes
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According to Stephen Covey, in his book Principle Centered Leadership, ‘If there is little or no trust, there is no foundation for permanent success.’ When people around him tried to convince Bachchan to let go of ABCL and declare bankruptcy, the superstar refused because he believed that precious little was possible without trust, and it went against his principles to let down someone who had placed trust in him.
Courtesy: Pradeep Chandra
According to Covey, the Character Ethic is ‘the foundation of success — things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty…’ Bachchan’s life as an actor and a human being seems to exemplify a person whose interactions with people have been governed by the Character Ethic. In doing so, Bachchan has invariably managed to set himself apart from others in the Hindi film industry. “He’s a complete contradiction to the industry he’s in,” ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar says. “His values remain unchanged in an industry that’s increasingly ephemeral in its principles. He’s always stood for them, he’s always worked for them.” Facing the darkness, and living through trying times has endowed Bachchan with a newfound confidence the kind that blossoms from within. “I have not differentiated between life and struggle; I’ve felt more vibrant, more alive when the challenge got tougher, meaner. It has created a deep faith within
me. Now I like struggle and can appreciate life better,” he says. “The new Amitabh Bachchan has emerged. He’s proved to the world that he is a durable part of the industry. Not many people have had the kind of long innings he has, to have survived many a death. There have been so many deaths where he has been written off as a has-been, but he has survived that,” says filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. “He goes beyond the moment, he goes beyond the sentence. He goes beyond the question. That is how he analyses the role and the film. These are the great gifts of Amitabh Bachchan,” says Gerson DaCunha. Bachchan is, in fact, very humble about his talent. “As an artiste, I believe that I should never feel satisfied. Perfection is a state only for God. If he considers himself perfect then the artiste begins to impersonate God. But when a man finds contentment, he really attains godhood. An artiste always has to search for ways to improve. A divine discontent is always necessary for creative achievement. It leads to
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“He’s embarrassingly punctual. Whether it’s a small ad film or Oscar-nominee material, he gives it the same attention and effort. It is not the money that makes him pay attention, it is the attitude. He’s always five minutes ahead of everybody.” is a superman and super people can do things which ordinary people can’t.”
Prahlad Kakkar that moment of creativity — the moment of daring surrender by which all things new in this world have taken form.” It is this kind of passion and integrity that has enabled Bachchan to be the icon that he is today. He must hold a record of sorts for being the brand ambassador for around thirty to forty brands at the same time. This is a first even worldwide. “The reason he is probably the best actor on the Indian screen is that, other than Dilip Kumar, I can’t remember anyone with such tremendous talent and ability, that he can convince an audience in whatever role he plays. That’s the beauty of Amitabh Bachchan and that’s why Amitabh has also become an advertising icon,” says ad guru Alyque Padamsee. Ad gurus like Padamsee heave a sigh of relief that they have a trustworthy ad motif. “I say thank God we have had an Amitabh Bachchan in our lives. All the people ask me, ‘do the products sell?’ And I have to answer with a resounding Yes! They do sell. All brands that Amitabh Bachchan has endorsed, as far as I know, have increased their market share, increased their sales.” Prasoon Joshi, poet and creative director, McCann Erikson, also believes in the influence Bachchan has over the masses. “There is nobody else I can think of who can do so much justice to an advertisement. He
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In real life, Bachchan is unlike the usual flamboyant Hindi film star prevalent today. So his quiet, almost introverted, personality tends to take on mythic status. “As far as public persona is concerned, when he was a ‘The Star’ as the angry, young man, he tended to shun publicity, because he said he was always being misquoted. Today, Amitabh is in the spotlight more than the Prime Minister of India,” muses Padamsee. Bachchan is exacting when it comes to his job, always approaching each day with a dedication and discipline that is admirable. “I wish there were more disciplined actors like him. His is an amazing success story. He always comes to the sets fully prepared, never makes anybody wait, never interferes on the set. Maybe the key to his success is that he hasn’t taken his success for granted. He is still very passionate about his acting. Consistency is most important, which you will find in Bachchan’s performance. A part of it also goes to his upbringing and literary background but his own contribution to the success cannot be denied,” adds Padamsee. “He is a terrific professional,” says Kakkar. “He’s embarrassingly punctual. Whether it’s a small ad film or Oscar-nominee material, he gives it the same attention and effort. It is not the money that makes him pay attention, it is the attitude. He’s always five minutes ahead of everybody.” In the same
How does he do it? “Busy-ness is just an attitude. A man can perform all if so he wills. Otherwise even thirty hours in a day would not suffice. The twenty-four hours available in a day are ample to do one’s job. One should take care to plan his day well.”
Alyque Padamsee
“The reason he is probably the best actor on the Indian screen is that, other than Dilip Kumar, I can’t remember anyone with such tremendous talent and ability, that he can convince an audience in whatever role he plays. ”
“Amit ji has been a very principled and sincere person all his life. He has no qualms about being a film actor. He has given respectability and status to a Hindi film hero right from the start,” says Jaya Bachchan. Subhash Ghai says his films like ‘Pa’ ,’Pink’ and ‘Piku’ are his favourites and a new Amitabh has emerged with these , “He is in a mood to experiment. Today he has become a character actor. At the same time, he remains the boss among the numerous lead stars today. What is commendable is that he has made character actors’ roles significant and equally important today.” About his feelings on having reached the pinnacle in his profession, he says, “An artist looks forward to something new everyday. The attitude of selfsatisfaction is wrong. I want to face new challenges each day, and be daunted by new ideas and roles which force me to use my innovative capabilities to do something I have never done before.”
twenty-four hours available to everyone, Bachchan manages to include in his schedule his TV show, his film career as well as the numerous shoots for his various advertising endorsements. The key may lie in something he said in an interview that took place some years ago.
Bachchan doesn’t take his star status seriously at all. “I do not find anything special. I consider myself to be part of a powerful medium that can rivet the attention of people. The credit lies with the medium and not the individual. People still love me but that shouldn’t turn my head.”
In reply to a question about his age, Bachchan replied that he had always been anxious about it. “Oddly enough, as your physical capacity decreases with age, the expectations go up. That’s the most frightening part. People’s expectations are so high that it scares me. And it’s almost impossible to live up to it.” Bachchan isn’t afraid of overexposure, “I want as much exposure as is possible. I am absolutely desperate to work. I consider myself fortunate that I still get work at the age of seventy four. And, honestly, I feel thrilled to be able to portray diverse characters.”
He doesn’t believe that he is gilt edged. Even being awarded BBC’s Actor of the Millennium doesn’t cut too much ice with him. “There was disbelief. I was surprised, but I am grateful that there are people who voted for me and I graciously accept their verdict. But yes, it was very surprising...awards and rewards are the opinions of some people.” n (The writer has authored books titled AB The Legend, A Photographers Tribute and Abhishek Bachchan, Style and substance )
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AH! TO WATCH A TRAIN GO BY... Working on the Gujarat Tourism campaign became a once in a lifetime opportunity to interact with the Big B, for Kirti Thakar
E
ver since the Millennium’s Mahanayak, Amitabh Bachchan became the Brand Ambassador for TCGL (Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd.) at the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tourists from home and abroad have been thronging the State to experience the vibrancy of Gujarat’s varied destinations, and get a real feel of what is described so perfectly by the Big B in his famed baritone. As brand ambassador of Gujarat from 2010 to 2013, he appeared in 21 TV commercials, which boosted the local economy greatly, apart from creating much-needed awareness on the wealth of heritage sites that Gujarat boasts of.
the department plus my past experience of working in native theatre productions, gave me this golden opportunity to be associated with India’s best out-ofthe-box thinkers. My job included location hunting for all the TV commercials, plus other production inputs and requirements such as props. The lead team comprising of creative experts Piyush Pandey, Shoojit Sircar and Anurag Agnihotri, finalized these already short-listed locations for the shoot, which were spread far and wide. During the process we also collected known and unknown facts about these locations, which helped in preparing a strong and an authentic script to woo the visitors.
During this tenure, I was fortunate to be included in the production team, as part of TGCL. My experience of touring all over the state as part of my job with
It was agreed upon to shoot the films in 3 stages (7 films for each stage) covering all of Gujarat.
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natural wealth offered by Gujarat, he thought. This exchange gave me some ideas and led me to start my own venture, revolving around Film shoots in Gujarat. To my great joy, a 15-day shoot of Mr. Bachchan’s film, ‘Piku’ was organized in Gujarat, and in order to avoid bottlenecks, it was under my guidance!
It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me, not only concerning work and filmmaking but to be in the company of the megastar Amitabh Bachchan! To just be able to observe him was an unexpected treat. Once, on way from Jamnagar to Dwarka, all the film crew vehicles had to stop for a passing train on a narrow gauge crossing. Mr. Bachchan got off his car, went near the crossing gate and gazed at the train with childlike curiosity. Later on he shared with me that it was after a long time that he had got this chance to view a chugging train from close quarters. He also added that there was no need to hunt for film locations in UP, MP, Kerala when such beautiful, peaceful and scenic landscapes were widely available in Gujarat. All filmmakers must come and explore this immense
While shooting at Saputara, I fondly remember the way he relished the local food – Nagli na Rotla and Bamboo-Shoot pickle, a totally different and rare experience for him. He opined that while touring one should try the local food and flavor, which he also mentioned in the TV commercial on Saputara. Watching him work with such dedication, one lesson I learnt for life is definitely to keep oneself busy and keep working. At one point Ad Guru, Piyush Pandey shared his views on Mr Bachchan with me, and although I spent limited time with the Big B, it was enough for me to feel the same - that be it his upbringing or culture, sincerity or passion for work, or humor and humanity, all these are abundant in him, making him a true ‘Shahenshah’. n (Kirti Thakar is Location Advisor & Coordinator, SHOOT IN GUJARAT)
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KBC: THE SHOW THAT RESURRECTED BACHCHAN Naysayers had already pooh - poohed the idea of a super star like Amitabh ‘stooping’ to television. 17 years after KBC started, Amitabh continues to prove them all wrong...
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hile watching KBC, one imagines oneself in the ‘hot seat’, trying to answer the questions and play along with the game. No other show on Indian TV has engaged the audience like KBC. Terms like ‘viewer-fatigue’ have no meaning in its case, as the audience is ever hungry to witness more success stories, the caveat being that they be in the presence of Amitabh Bachchan. And the Big B, in his selfeffacing way, looking dapper in well-tailored suits never disappoints as the perfect, genuinely warm host of the show. Amitabh has tried his luck more than once on television - as a host of a show called ‘Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi’ and acting as an elite businessman in another show, ‘Yudh’. Both these didn’t catch on with the audience, though the former initially received a
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bumper response, then gradually lost its charm. What did catch on like fire though, one that shows no sign of abating is the game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. KBC was started in the year 2000 with Bachchan as the host who took it up as a major challenge. The show was a grand success from the word go. KBC, based on the English show, ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’ resonated with all Indians, rich or poor. Within a short span, billions of people of every age started putting in efforts to see themselves on ‘Hot Seat’ of KBC, and obviously beside Bachchan. KBC was restarted after a break of four years after the first lot of episodes, and renamed ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati Dwitya’, in which the final prize was raised
to 2 crores. Unfortunately the game was abruptly ended by Star Plus after Bachchan fell ill. Amitabh had shot 61 of the 85 episodes when he had to opt out, but seeing the popularity of the show and demand from the audience, he announced to return with it as soon as he recovered. Star TV roped in Shah Rukh Khan as the host of the third season of KBC. SRK was at the peak of his career and was considered an ideal replacement for Amitabh Bachchan. It was decided to keep the prize money as 2 crore even in Season 3 of KBC, but the show soon started losing its attraction and ratings, (some still blame the replacement of Amitabh as a cause). After an unsatisfactory review and response from the audience, the show came to an end in April 2007. Amitabh returned to KBC with flying colors on his 68th birthday and ended a long spell of speculation, as the fourth season of KBC began on 11 October 2010. According to online sources, over five million (50 lakh) people participated in KBC 4 auditions. This time the prize money was decreased to 1 Crore, but a new jackpot question for 5 crore was added. With the return of Amitabh, the show was once again an unbelievable success. Powerful, true stories of the contestants who came from every corner of the country, be it Jamshedpur or Motihari (Sushil Kumar, a 5 crore winner) drew more viewers than ever before (27 million for the final episode of Sushil Kumar), shocking even the business head of Sony, the channel which took over the show, when Star TV moved out. Amitabh’s natural, impromptu interactions with the contestants add substantially to the charm and pleasure of watching the show. He is the epitome of an individual full of ‘tehzeeb’ and so the show automatically becomes a lesson in good manners and not just in facts and figures. Moreover, with taglines such as ‘Sirf Gyaan Hi Aapko Aapka Haq Dilata Hai’ and ‘Seekhna Bandh Toh Jeetna Bandh’, the campaign’s philosophy echoes common Indian thoughts and aspirations. Speaking on the campaign, Danish Khan, Senior
Vice President & Marketing Head, SET says, “KBC celebrates the power of knowledge – a great leveler in our society, also a potent change agent. Our brief to Leo Burnett was to bring this thought alive with real people in the real context. The campaign’s thought captures the core value of the show. We aim to reach out to a larger set of audience and provide to the common man a unique chance to change his destiny.” The sixth and seventh season were also hosted by Bachchan and the total prize money was increased to `7 Crore, with the number of questions increased from 13 to 15. The tagline for the 8th season was ‘Yahan Sirf Paise Nahi, Dil Bhi Jeete Jate Hain’. The show started with a bang as three special guests appeared in the grand premiere episode: comedian, Kapil Sharma, Dayanand Shetty and Aditya Shrivastava from the television series CID, and Faisal Khan from the series 'Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap’. Faisal’s stellar dance performance and the Shillong Chamber Choir’s performance a medley of evergreen Bollywood songs was followed by a patriotic song at the opening ceremony of KBC8. Other famous guests on KBC include Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Rani Mukherjee and Abhishek Bachchan. The ongoing KBC Season 9 returned with Bachchan resuming hosting duties as it premiered in August 2017, after 19.8 million entries were received ever since the announcement by Sony. Bachchan was apprehensive when the show first began in 2000. TV was a new beast for him to conquer and he reportedly found it exhausting compared to film. With his success, however, he went on to bestow an authority to television as an appropriate medium for filmstars, something that was unheard of earlier. He now comfortable straddles the two worlds, shooting for both KBC and his upcoming films on the same day sometimes! The craze for the show continues and audiences of different generations still make it a point to reach home in time to catch the show at 9 p.m from Monday to Friday, and watch Bachchan as he continues to weave his legendary magic... n
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COMING SOON... Mr Bachchan reinvents himself yet again, with ‘Thugs of Hindostan’
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r. Bachchan is working hard, very hard, it’s true, but it seems he’s having fun too, like never before, playing the most unusual characters and the most challenging roles. For a man who once said that he will continue working till the end, even if he has to be ‘part of a crowd’, so much attention and adulation at seventy-five, is more than perhaps even he could have imagined. In a way, the most ambitious film being made under the banner of Yash Raj Films is ‘Thugs Of Hindostan’, in which Amitabh and Aamir Khan come together for the first time and play thugs during the pre-partition era. The teaming up of the two great actors of two
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different generations has made it one of the most talked about films. According to very reliable sources the film is based on a novel, ‘Confessions of a Thug’, written by Philip Meadows Taylor, but the makers apparently have made certain changes to suit the India of today. According to other reliable sources, Amitabh and Aamir are playing thugs and also playing father and son. The film is being shot under tight security and secrecy and every member of the unit has taken an oath, binding them to keep all that happens on the sets, under wraps. The shoot is making brisk progress with
Amitabh going out of his way to find time to shoot for KBC and the movie at around the same time. Going by other sources ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ revolves around the exploits of the dreaded thug Ameer Ali, the character being played by Amitabh, who will be seen in grey shades after he was last seen as a villain way back in the seventies when he was a struggler, in a film called ‘Parwaana’. The story is about a time when a strong ‘thuggee’ cult operated in India. The thugs would befriend travellers, gain their trust, and ultimately rob and kill them. The cult had become a source of nuisance for the British administration and the Indian royalty and according to a study, the thugs had killed between 5,00,000 to 20,00,000 people which makes them the most dangerous terrorist group in human history. Ameer Ali (Aamir Khan) is the protagonist, a Pathan whose parents are looted and killed by a gang of thugs. The thugs then raise him as one of their own. The story begins with Ameer Ali narrating the story of his childhood and how he became a prominent thug and later avenged himself after his fall from power. Ameer Ali is a dark character, haunted by repressed memories of his parents' murders and having killed 700 people during his lifetime. Ismail (Amitabh), a prominent high-ranking thug, is the man who adopts Ameer Ali after the boy's parents are killed.
‘Thugs of Hindostan’ revolves around the exploits of the dreaded thug Ameer Ali, the character being played by Amitabh, who will be seen in grey shades after he was last seen as a villain way back in the seventies when he was a struggler, in a film called ‘Parwaana’
Reportedly, ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ will feature battles being fought in the sea, similar to scenes in films like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. An international team has already been roped into direct the fight sequences. The final result will appear on the big screen during Diwali in 2018.
The two actors who have done more than a dozen films together during their hey days will be seen together again in this film that promises to be as unusual as its name.
Besides Amitabh and Aamir, the film has Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh of ‘Dangal’ fame in leading roles in the film which is expected to be shot with massive crowds and battles on the sea scenes. Mr Bachchan is also shooting for ‘102 Not Out’, in which he plays the hundred and two year old father of his seventy-five year old son played by Rishi Kapoor.
Moreover, Amitabh is said to have signed films which will keep him busy at least for the next five years. Does that mean that we will see him in action even when he has celebrated his eightieth birthday? Let’s hope that he fulfills this ambition too, not only for himself but his audience too who just cannot get enough of him! n
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bold words
going strong Twitterati on #AmitabhBachchan’s 75th Birthday
Farhan Akhtar @ FarOutAkhtar Happy birthday Amit uncle. @SrBachchan .. hoping this is the year you release the amazing music you played us on day. Lots of love.
John Abraham@ TheJohnAbraham To the man who held my hand when I started my career. I will always stand by you.. Happy Birthday Sir.
Boman Irani @bomanirani My inspiration began when I was a lad. I’m grandfather now, and it only gets stronger. Happy birthday @ SrBachchan!!
Farah Khan@ TheFarahKhan He possesses the MAGIC or the magic possesses him?! @SrBachchan SrBachchan happy birthday thank you for being you!
Arjun Kapoor @arjunk26 The man, the legend, the icon. Happy birthday Amit uncle. Your humility and graciousness is the hallmark of your stardom @SrBachchan
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Riteish Deshmukh @Riteishd To the greatest ever, biggest ever, humblest ever @ SrBachchan - Sir wishing you a very happy birthdayhappiness, health & love forever.
Mohanlal @Mohanlal Happy Birthday to the Legend of Indian Cinema , many many good wishes to you @SrBachchan
A.R.Rahman @arrahman Wish you a very happy birthday @SrBachchan ji..
VISHAL DADLANI@ VishalDadlani On @SrBachchan ‘s birthday, here’s Shri Harivanshrai Bachchan -saab’s legendary poem “Agneepath”. Truly, words to live and die by.