Amitabh Bachchan went through a rather tough phase professionally in the 1980s and the 1990s. He took a sabbatical from the movies after he entered politics in the 1980s, but he had to resign amid much controversy around the Bofors scandal in 1987. At this point, Amitabh's public image took a huge hit. In a recent interview, actor Aanjjan Srivastav, who also worked as a banker and facilitated many loans to Amitabh's company ABCL, shared an anecdote from the time when Bachchan was having a tough time financially. He said that the embattled star promised to return every penny that he owed to the bank. In fact, when the bank wanted Jaya Bachchan to be a guarantor on the loan, Aanjjan helped make that possible. In a chat with Friday Talkies, Aanjjan recalled that the chairman of the bank wanted an appointment with Amitabh Bachchan as the actor was thinking about changing branches. Aanjjan shared that Bachchan invited the chairman to his house. He shared that after some time passed, and Bachchan was in the middle of the Bofors controversy, the bank wanted its money back and Aanjjan was given the task of getting Bachchan to repay the loan. "The bank started saying that ask him to return our money. I took the manager with me and went to his shoot at Kamalistan Studios. He said (gestures folded hands), 'Main aapke ek ek payi vapis kar dunga (I will return every penny I owe you)'. And he did. He is a man of his word," he said. Aanjjan said that, on a different occasion, the head office asked that Jaya be made the guarantor and Aanjjan made that happen as well. "The head office said that they want Jaya's guarantee and she also signed," he said. ALSO READ | Shefali Jariwala Death Live Updates: Shefali suffered seizures ‘on the road, backstage’, was ‘madly in love’ with husband Parag Tyagi In an earlier chat with Rajshri Unplugged, Aanjjan said that during the financial mess of ABCL in the 1990s, he felt that Amitabh was being fooled by those who looked after his finances. He shared that when the bank sent him to Bachchan as they were thinking about filing a suit, he stopped them. "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. He shared that Bachchan was “trapped” in the financial mess of ABCL. “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," he said. Bachchan's fortunes changed in the early 2000s and he eventually paid all his creditors.
