‘Amitabh Bachchan got up with folded hands, said I will return your money as soon as possible’: Aanjjan Srivastav recalls ABCL’s tough days

The actor said that Amitabh was in a “very bad condition.” He added, “No one was there to check on it. We know that the litterateurs of Allahabad had started criticising him. His father’s friends had started speaking ill about him without knowing anything. He was in a doldrum, very bad condition.”

Apart from being an actor, Aanjjan was also a banker and his bank was involved in the finances of Amitabh’s company ABCL, which went through a bad phase in the 1990s. The actor said that when he met Amitabh in his capacity as a banker for the loan, Bachchan got up “got up with folded hands” and said that he will return the money as soon as possible.

“When we met him, he immediately got up with folded hands. He said that ‘I will return your money as soon as possible’. I told him ‘We have not come for that. We have come because of your accountant’s mistake. You return the money when you can and we trust you that you will give and your intention is right. But in this kind of banking, don’t do transactions with other banks.’ I came back to the bank and told them to not file any suit. Slowly he returned all the money,” Aanjjan said.

Aanjjan said that he believed that Amitabh was “trapped” in the financial mess of his company. “When ABCL account was there, he (Amitabh) was trapped in it. We used to go to his office from the bank to take statements and people were bluffing him badly. This is what my manager and I realised,” said Aanjjan, who besides a plethora of plays, television shows and films, is known for playing Srinivas Wagale in 1988 sitcom Wagale Ki Duniya.

It is well known that Amitabh had gone bankrupt when his company ABCL incurred heavy losses but after Kaun Banega Crorepati’s success in the early 2000s and a few hits, Big B was able to get rid of the debt. Aanjjan also said that it “astonishes him” that once KBC came, Amitabh “cut off” all his old friends and acquaintances.

Aanjjan was recently seen in Wagle Ki Duniya – Nayi Peedhi Naye Kissey.