отсюда - интервью с Амитом.
It’s rather silly to write an opener on the nation’s greatest icon. So let’s get him in immediately. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Amitabh Bachchan talking straight from the heart. No wry humour, no politically correct answers… forget kum, there’s zero chini in this two-hour conversation. Drop what you’re doing, and pay close attention. Our Big B doesn’t open up like this every other day.
• You are doing excessive amount of work, given your age. Movies, stage shows, endorsements… what’s keeping you going? Is it because you once faced tough financial times, and don’t wish to relive that ever again?
(Thinks.) Somewhere there is an honesty in what you ask. I never hoped I would address this in this manner. Now that you have asked, I will give you an honest reply. Yes, to some extent, there is a deep sense of insecurity. The days that I saw were an absolute nightmare. There were creditors at my door; it was humiliating. I think if life can be so unpredictable, I want to work so that stage doesn’t reappear. Of course, that can still happen. But in a way, the setbacks that happened were beneficial. Till ten years ago, I did not even know what the word ‘interest’ meant. I got aware of what’s going on.
• Do you trust people a little less now?
Yes.
• Were you cheated by your managers then, or was it just a case of bad management?
It’s difficult for me to comment on that, I don’t even know how to analyse a cheat. But even if that was the case, I would take the blame for it, it was my bad management.
• Many of your colleagues in the industry are bitter about not being invited to the wedding.
If there is bitterness, I would like to apologise to my fraternity. I had to call people connected to my father. Then there were my relatives. And the business and political world. Amar Singh also sent out his invitations. As for my fraternity, if I called one, I would have to call all. So where do you put a stop? I had problems of space. Prateeksha is not large enough to hold so many people.
• It must have taken a long time to arrive at the guest list.
Why do you think it took so long to get to the wedding? And we reached a very moderate figure of thirty thousand invitees! Where do you house them? Where is the venue that can hold this? And we felt marriage is too personal a thing to hold on a maidan. It would have become a tamasha. Also, my mother is not well, and we did not want a celebratory feeling. So we finally called people who are intimate with us. From my own side, there was only one guest: Amar Singh. So, there can be no apt answer for this. There has never been a marriage in the world which has been suitably organised, or over which questions weren’t raised.
• Why didn’t you simply invite only twenty or thirty close relations?
We did toy with that idea, but what do I do about the sentiments of my son?
He said, ‘I will only get married once in my life, I do want certain friends to be there.’
• As for the media, the wedding was a PR disaster for you.
(Thinks a long time.) We don’t really feel that important enough to be getting so much attention.
• But Sir, you are the biggest icon of the nation…
(Interrupts.) But that’s in your mind; it’s not in my mind. We genuinely do not believe this. I am happy that some people love me, and I want to acknowledge that. But I am very shy about that. I am incapable of handling recognition. So it becomes a very trying experience, when all we want to do is something very routine. I go to see my mother in the hospital, but even that has to be carefully planned. There are hundreds of people waiting, and I feel embarrassed.
• I think you are living in denial about your own popularity.
Truth is, I have never accepted it.
• Basically you are saying, ‘Look, I am just doing my work, I never asked for this.’
Yes, you are absolutely right.
• But you have to get real. It was the biggest wedding in the country. There is bound to be interest.
But we are not accepting that.
• You did not expect so much media interest?
Not at all, we were alarmed. Which is why a lot of our actions are looking as being arrogant and elusive. When you are alarmed, you make mistakes, you don’t know how to handle it.
• Why could not the couple have at least acknowledged the waiting photographers? Rahul Dravid did just that. He did not invite the press to the wedding, but the couple did appear later and allowed pictures to be shot. So everyone went home happy.
I wanted to observe a certain protocol. The first thing they wanted to do after the wedding was to meet my ailing mother. And when they came back from there, we could have done it. But the media chased them and it became impossible.
• Because you drove the media to desperation… in hindsight, do you believe that should not have happened? You would have generated goodwill, and I am sure your mom too would have wanted it that way.
Yes, I do agree; I admit we should have done that.
• There’s a tax evasion charge on you.
I haven’t got the notice yet, I want to see the details first.
• Is there a vendetta against you by the Gandhi family, because you are close to Amar Singh?
I would not like to believe that. And they have more important things to think about. I can only say this: The relationship started from the time of Pandit Nehru, Indiraji and my father. I will always respect that association.
• Just for that relationship, you could have invited Sonia.
These are personal matters; I would not like to talk about them.
• You are said to have cheated farmers of their rightful land.
It is subjudice, my lawyers will not allow me to talk about this. The stay has been given because we were not given the opportunity to make a presentation. Once it’s all clear, I will call you and give you an adequate response.
• There are farmers committing suicide. These are serious allegations.
(Thinks.) Nobody is aware of what I have done in this issue. I was once in Vishakhapatnam for a shoot. I read in a newspaper the farmers are committing suicide for the want of a few thousand rupees. I have not said this to anybody. But after I came back to Bombay, I caught hold of an NGO, and saved the lives of forty farmers. By paying back their loans. In both, Andhra and Maharashtra. I did not personally go there, because then it would have looked as if I was seeking publicity. The most touching event was that forty farmers clapped loudly, saying, "We will clap so loud, wherever he is, he will hear our appreciation." Would I ever do something which is morally incorrect, which my conscience doesn’t allow? I am a creative person, all these things affect my mind. I am not able to shoot my films in peace.
• Can’t understand your relationship with Amar Singh. You have burnt your fingers with politics in the past.
It’s merely a perception. We don’t discuss politics, this is only a friendship. He is a good man. It is unfortunate that people in the media think otherwise.
• He helped you in your bad times.
He simply came and stood by me.
• He did not help you financially?
No. If he was helping me, why was there a need to go to Yash Chopra and ask for work?
• Here’s what I think: Amar Singh has become a foil for you, he fills in for the weakness you have being an actor, a creative person. He helps you work around things you aren’t comfortable with, or don’t understand.
Yes, I will admit to that.
• Don’t you think you should not have done the UP election ads? Little research would have told you crime is on the rise in UP. (I show him various reports on UP’s rising crime.)
They came with figures from the Home Ministry. Also, why don’t crimes committed in other States get reported in the media?
• Of course they do.
But there’s no outcry.
• Because you went on air with an incorrect opinion on UP.
I did it because I am UP’s brand ambassador.
• But you cannot be a part of a campaign based on lies. When you did the Cadbury’s ad, after worms were found, you demanded proof of the chocs being safe, right? So why not ditto on this occasion.
I guess now we will have to be careful of what we do. About what we say, what we endorse, what we do publicly.
• I think you couldn’t say no to Amar Singh.
I have said no to him on many occasions. He knows my limitations.
• Were you upset when Shah Rukh took pot shots at Amar Singh at an awards’ show, he called him a ‘darinda’ who leches at pretty girls?
Shah Rukh has this fun filled nature, he cracks jokes. In American talk shows, they do a lot of these things. I thought it was okay. But yes, if someone is sensitive, then one needs to be a little more careful.
• Will you please tell our readers all this manglik business is hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo?
It is total rubbish. I don’t believe in the manglik business. It is mumbo jumbo and totally ridiculous. If two consenting adults decide to get married, that’s it for me. I abhor this kind of thinking.
• Will you ever do a film with Rekha again?
Yes, why not? Nobody has come up with the right script where justice can be done to somebody of her caliber.
• At the risk of you throwing me out of here: Did you have an affair with Rekha?
No. She’s been a very dear colleague. We never had an affair.
• Was it one-sided?
I don’t know, I can’t speak for her.
• You are our No 1 icon. Why don’t you stand up for the people? 26/7, for example: You never raised your voice.
Frankly, I don’t do this because I am afraid it will not be taken in the right spirit; it will have no effect. Because we always think negatively when something like this happens. ‘Yeh to kadha hai kyunki isko politics mein jaana hai.’ If I am going to be criticised for something I am doing with all sincerity, then I am not going to do it.
• Have you become cynical? You’ve seen so many ups and downs, you don’t want to be involved.
(Thinks.) I want to do my thing, and I want to be happy. I want to worry only about the next dialogue I have to deliver.
• I wrote after 26/7 that people of Mumbai should not pay their taxes till we get a basic amenity like a drainage system in place. No one gives a damn when a nobody like me says that. But if you did, it can mobilise opinion.
If I said that, people will say, ‘Woh to vaise bhi tax nahin deta hai’. This is the reality, our crab culture.
• Basically you are saying: Leave me alone, I’m just an actor.
Yeah.
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