Playing Big BADDIE

Bachchan,who was in a jovial mood made sure that everyone went home happy. Currently on a promotional campaign for his upcoming film Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap in which he plays a ‘happily angry’ gangster who hates being called bbuddah,Bachchan came dressed in dark blue distressed jeans with a silver backpocket,a grey sweatshirt,a white silk scarf and red-framed glasses in tandem with his character. “The character I play is arrogant and has an attitude,so his outfits also have to be flamboyant,” he smiled.

He regaled the packed audience by reciting the dialogue Hum jahaan khade hote hain line wahin se shuru hoti hai from his hit film Kaalia that has been used in Bbuddah… In fact,the usually-reticent Bachchan,impressed the crowd by talking at length about the different phases of his illustrious 41 year film career,the changing face of cinema,music,social networking and more.

Here\’s are some of the issues he spoke about:

What prompted you to do a film like Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap?

It was Ram Gopal Varma who brought the film to me. He told me,I should meet director Puri Jagannadh who has a wonderful story to tell. I was familiar with Puri’s work,as I had watched his Telugu film Pokkiri. I met him,heard the story and I liked it,including the title,Bbuddah!

In fact,Abhishek (Bachchan) and I thought it was a good subject to produce under our banner AB Corp. The tagline,Hoga Terra Baap came later when we started writing the film. Those of you who are familiar with the northern parts of the country will know that it is a commonly used colloquial phrase there and it has a relevance to the story.

Bbuddah…Hoga Terra Baap is about a gangster who is living in Paris and is brought back to Mumbai for a mission. The film also stars Hema Maliniji,Raveena Tandon,Sonu Sood,Sonal Chauhan and Charmme Kaur,a very charming girl from Telugu cinema.

I don’t think I have done something like this for a long time. Most of the roles that came to me in the later half of my career were commensurate to my age and patriarchal in their outlook,very sublime,almost submissive and condescending. A lot of people came to me and said that they don’t want to see me like this any more. They wanted something fresh from me. So when Bbuddah came to me,I readily accepted it.

The music of Bbuddah.. is the talk of the town. Tell us something about it.

Vishal and Shekhar have composed the music. We zeroed in on them because we needed young music directors and I share a good relationship with the duo. The brief given to them was that the film is a very light-hearted,typical escapist commercial fare. However,the brief given by Puri was very funny. Puri,whose Hindi is not so good and English is also a little weak,had a meeting with the duo. When I asked Shekhar about the brief he gave them,he said. Puri had told them ‘Goli chalata hai,Ladki patata hai,goli chalata hai,ladki patata hai. That’s it!’

It was a spontaneous music session where we just bounced off ideas and in 10 minutes we had three songs ready and we quickly recorded them. Vishal and Shekhar asked me to sing too,which I feel,is a terrible thing. One of the songs in the film is a medley of my old songs. During its creation,Abhishek sang rap portions of the song,to which I lip-sync. I thought that the same song,constructed differently,could be used for the film’s promotion.

How has music changed over the years?

The whole business of recording music has changed. I feel so ancient at times. I remember Famous Studio at Tardeo. As young strugglers we were asked to go there and hang out as prominent music directors,stars and filmmakers came there everyday. We used to cross our fingers thinking that someone will spot us and take us for their new project. Opposite the studios,there was a place,where you used to get fantastic omelettes. And with the kind of money we had,we used to eat or rather afford only one omelette a day. My dream was to someday cross the gate and see what lies inside and see how music is recorded.

Those days music was recorded in just one take. The musicians,the orchestra and the singers came together and recorded and if even one violinist made a mistake,the entire song was scrapped and had to be redone. But today the situation is such that singers don’t even know which film they are working on. They are given a tune,asked to go in front of the microphone and sing. There’s no orchestra,just a beat and the rhythm. The orchestra is added later. They cut it,paste it and even put besuras like me in sur. It is so magical.

Who designed your look in the film?

Everybody contributed to it. However,designer Leepakshi,who had worked with Puri in his previous projects and also designed Salman Khan’s look in Wanted,worked on my look. Puri wanted something flamboyant as my character is slightly arrogant and has a lot of attitude. He’s a man who rejects the idea of anyone calling him old or buddah,which is why the look had to be lively and vibrant.

How easy or difficult was it to ride the Harley-Davidson bike?

I can ride a bike but I am not very good because I don’t do it on a regular basis. I tend to get nervous and in this film I had to ride a Harley Davidson,a huge machine which has everything. You can live inside it! Since I was riding it for the first time I rehearsed. I told them to take me to some isolated place where there are no trees,crowds or vehicles so that even if I crash,no one is harmed. Later,I managed to drive,even in traffic. Now,I understand why people want to drive a Harley-Davidson and other such vehicles. They give you a different kind of adrenaline rush.

Before Bbuddah… you turned around the age factor with unconventional roles in films like Cheeni Kum and Paa.

R. Balki has always wanted to make films that are unconventional. He thinks differently,I wonder what he drinks at night! His characterisation for the roles that he has written for me have been different and happily,they have worked.

However,it’s also true that such roles don’t always work. For example,the age difference between my character and the girl he is love with in Nishabd didn’t go down well with the audience. Also in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag,there was a certain kind of dissatisfaction and apprehension among the audience as they didn’t want me to play a negative character,least of all one that had been historically performed by Amjad Khan in Sholay.

Having said that,it is important to get roles that challenge you as an actor. In the first phase of one’s career,one is supposed to look good,and as the leading man smash the villain and woo the girl. Any kind of characterisation to the hero’s role doesn’t work. But today even though I am nearing 70,I am fortunate to get such roles.

This phase is a lot more exciting as far as variety in roles is concerned. But yes,there are many who don’t move away from what they are good at till the time they leave the industry,not just in India but across the world. John Wayne never got off his horse in any film,he is like the icon of American cinema. I think it is largely dependent on how people want to see you. There is a strong identification and if you are even a couple of degrees below that,the audience doesn’t respond to you. However,the audience has been very gracious to me,they have seen me in different kind of films. These include Hrishikesh Mukerjee’s middle-of-the-path,sensitive cinema,Manmohan Desai who was over the top and extremely flamboyant with films like Amar Akbar Anthony,Balki and all the new generation filmmakers. It has been a rewarding experience.

What do you feel about the new generation of filmmakers?

The younger generation that has taken over the film industry is brilliant. They are aggressive and very keen to succeed. The average age on my set when I work on a film is 25 and I am close to 70,I feel awkward at times but it’s fantastic to see how they think and achieve whatever they want. This new breed of filmmakers is very smart.

In our times,we used to think a hundred times if we wanted to get a crane on the sets but now they get whatever they want as soon as possible.

Is there a kind of idol worship when younger people,who have grown up watching your films,work with you?

It happens all the time with each and every generation. Everyone today wants to look like Salman Khan or Shah Rukh Khan. They want to have Shah Rukh’s hairstyle or aspire for a body like Salman. We are all fans of actors. I am still a great admirer of Dilip Kumar. Just to stand next to him was a frightening experience for me and then getting a chance to work with him in Shakti,was just unbelievable.

Idiolising stars is human nature and has nothing to do with the kind of aura they exude. After all,at the end of the day,actors are just normal people.

Please pick your favourites from the characters that you have played so far.

I would like to believe that all the characters that I played till date are good. I always try and answer this question by dividing my career in different phases. The earlier phases would be involving Khwaja Ahmed Abbas and Hrishida. Khwaja made socially-oriented films,which had great meaning and purpose. Hrishida because of the central path that he took,not too artistic,not too commercial but able to create that magic in cinema. Then there would be Salim-Javed for their brilliant writing. As a combo they were phenomenal. We really haven’t had such brilliant writing since. I think their Deewaar is one of the most complete scripts that Indian cinema has seen. Deewaar itself was an inspired subject,there were moments of Mother India and Ganga Jamuna in that film. After that come Prakash Mehra,Manmohan Desai,Yash Chopraji and then I move on to Tinnu Anand and Mukul Anand. Mukul Anand brought in an artistic look to his films. Coming from the advertising fraternity,he brought that special look to his cinema and made us look very nice. And then there’s Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar and their style of cinema…I am very fortunate that I got to experience all of them and their work.

In a recent interview Tom Hanks said that the only Indian star he wants to work with is Amitabh Bachchan.

It is probably a joke. They are just being polite,it is nothing serious.

Instead of Tom Hanks had it been Anjelina Jolie saying that then…

I would readily accept her to play my daughter. (Laughs).

What is your take on ad filmmakers turning film directors?

Ad filmmakers have a very difficult task. They have to convince an audience in 60 seconds. If they are able to do that,then with two or three hours on their hands,one hopes that they will be more convincing,and a lot of them have proved that. I have had a great experience with them and soon I will be working with other ad filmmakers who will be directing films for the first time.

Besides your film,people are looking forward to KBC5. What do you think worked for the show last season?

I think it was people from small-town India coming up to prove themselves on KBC4 that was fascinating. This lady (Rahat Taslim) who came from an unheard-of small-town,was from an orthodox Muslim background and had restrictions even to move in her own town. But she travelled in a plane and came to Mumbai for the first time and won a crore! I was told that she was recently on the cover of the Reader’s Digest.

You were among the earliest actors to start blogging.

Yes,but initially I didn’t know what a blog was. Somebody told me that you need to have a website,so I asked him what a website was. He explained it to me and said it would take six months as it requires designing. So in the meantime we came up with a blog because I wanted something quicker. Since then I write regularly on the blog. I have also started Tweeting now. When I wrote my first Tweet,I got 40 – 50 responses in a matter of few seconds. I thought it’s fantastic because on my blog I have to wait for a long time for the responses. On Twitter,I started responding to every tweet that I got till one of them said “ Arre band kar,you are spamming my site.” I didn’t even know what spamming was. I found that sometimes people get really abusive on these sites. I also got into big trouble once. I had responded to a journalist and everyone could read it. After that,the entire community of journalists came on to me! Since then,I think a thousand times before putting anything on my blog or on Twitter. You are apprehensive that you will get back an abuse that can destroy you for the rest of the day. But it is fabulous,it is like sitting in front of each other and talking. You tend to make contact with these faceless people.

Considering it is in your genes,have you ever thought of writing poetry?

I don’t have the talent for writing poetry. Anyway,my mother used to say that one poet in the family is enough. I will be blessed if I can understand all that my father wrote,be able to imbibe his great philosophical mind and his depth of writing.

How did the idea of reciting your father’s poetry come about?

I would recite my father’s poetry in my private conversations with friends. They felt I should do it on a public platform. However,I never attempted it till his 100th anniversary where I recited poetry in his honour at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and I was amazed with the response I got. After that,I was invited to the Marathi literary festival in Pune,which is known as a great center for art,literature and culture. The entire experience was fantastic. It was an outdoor location and over a lakh of people turned up. Now I do these recitals even when I am shooting. For instance,when I was shooting for Aarakshan in a Bhopal college,I used to spend sometime with the college staff and have recitals in the evenings. Also,a French lady who is incharge of events in Paris invited me to Champs-Elysees,a theatre famous for showcasing high-end ballets. There,I recited the poetry to a packed audience,of 1000. Seventy five per cent of the audience comprised French,25 per cent NRIs and a large contingent of my extended family members (created by my blog) who travelled from all over the world and came to see me perform. We ran a subtitled translation on stage,which was translated by a French professor,who taught Hindi in a Paris university. I was then invited to Krakow university in Poland. They had a section teaching Sanskrit. I did a recital there.

Do you think GenNext is moving away from poetry?

I feel this generation is drifting away in terms of art and literature. As far as films are concerned,we are again moving away from Hindi and Urdu. The kind of writing that we used to see in the ’60s and ’70s is not there today. But how do you argue with this generation? They like it and they are happy doing it,so you live with it.

You are the brand ambassador for Gujarat. What inspires you to promote Indian tourism?

I am proud of our country and want people to visit us. If I can do anything to boost Indian tourism I will do it happily. Which is why when the Gujarat government approached me to be the brand ambassador,I took it up and the venture has been successful. The tourism there has gone up by 30 to 40 per cent. Gujarat has some really incredible sights,of which even I wasn’t aware. They have the largest number of ancient monuments. After I visited the Gir Forest,the hotels,which had withdrawn their applications because they didn’t want to build them next to the forest,have come back. They feel that there will be an increase in the flow of tourists now. But there is still a large part of the state that has been left out and I will be going there again to promote those areas. Not only Gujarat,I have also done voiceovers to promote various historic sites like Khajuraho,Golconda fort,Gwalior fort,the fort in Tirupati,Jallianwala Bagh and several others. If they think my voice is good enough to attract people to come and take a look at these places,I am all for it.