Abhishek Bachchan on 20 years of Sarkar: ‘It was terrifying to face the camera with my father for the first time’

I remember Ramu called me to watch a rough line-up where I watched the first five minutes and I thought I’m done. It was a close-up of my father looking up into the camera from a saucer he’s sipping tea from. No dialogue, nothing, he just looks up. That one shot summed up the character and the power he wields. What a performance! It was a huge learning experience.

Another one of your father’s films, which has completed 50 years since its release this month, is Hrishikesh Mukerjee’s Mili, in which your mother Jaya Bachchan played the titular role. Do you have any memories of watching that film?

I haven’t seen Mili for a good 10 odd years. I must go revisit it again. When I was a kid, I used to not like watching my mother’s films because I used to find them very sad. I used to watch them with my sister (Shweta Bachchan), who ended up crying and I’d get into trouble because everybody would think I must’ve done something.

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After I became an actor and revisited a lot of films, I found Mili to be brilliant. It’s unbelievable how the great Hrishikesh Mukherjee would take such a human story and tell it so dramatically without being dramatic. Mom was obviously brilliant, but I thought my father had the more difficult role because he didn’t have any of the crutches that the title role had. Mili is a classic. Wow, 50 years man! Time’s flying.