Bachchan brought to book

The 400-page hardback, published by Macmillan, has Bachchan talking about events relating to both his professional and personal life 8212; his childhood and his relationship with his writer father, his entry into films and the subsequent developments of his career, his marriage and his relationship with his children, the formation of his company ABCL, the Miss World fiasco, and even the Bofors controversy. Also included are reminiscences of film-makers and actresses professionally associated with the actor.

Somaya, editor of G magazine, describes her book as 8220;the documentation of an icon.8221; Says she: 8220;I first met Amitabh in 1992 after he lifted the ban from the press, following which we had many interview sessions. Over the years my collection of interviews and pictures grew, till one fine day I realized this information held the potential of a great book. Macmillan suggested I give the project concrete shape before taking the proposal to Bachchan, so we put forth the proposal to him in the form of a dummy.8221;

And how did Bachchan react? 8220;I have always been uncomfortable about the idea of a biography, but when Bhawna approached me I agreed because we had been in touch over a period of time. She had interviewed me several times and I felt comfortable about the idea,8221; says Bachhan. Confesses Somaya: 8220;I think he was a bit taken aback at first, but true to his style he did not say much. He asked for some time to think about the proposal. And eventually agreed.8221; Subsequently, Somaya signed the contract with Macmillan.

Bachchan8217;s reticence coupled with his dislike for journalists makes him a challenging subject. To what extent has Somaya managed to penetrate the exterior? Smiles the author: 8220;That is a question best put to him. But I think I have succeeded in providing some rare insights into the legend8217;s life. To his credit, he has not deleted a single alphabet from the book. The book is special because it is Amitabh uncensored.8221; Bachchan returns the compliment: 8220;Bhawna has done a creditable job.8221; What aboutRekha? Says Somaya: 8220;Although the book includes an interview with Rekha, it only focuses on the actress8217;s views on Amitabh as an actor. And does Bachchan speak about his relationship with Rekha? 8220;Wherever I have probed him, Bachchan has given answers. But I think there is much more to the man than his women.8221;

Bachchan on Bachchan

Normal. Quite reserved and not particularly argumentative.

It8217;s strange, but memories that remain permanent are those connected with your early years. If you were to ask me something that occurred 10 years ago, I may not remember it all as vividly as I8217;d remember memories of my childhood. Isn8217;t this amazing? It could be because life at that time was much slower and every little thing that happened left an impression. Today, things happen so swiftly and rapidly, that it8217;s impossible to recapitulate. So, I have vivid memories of my childhood8230; I remember the various homes we lived in and the memories associated with them.

I remember my room. In the earlier home, my brother and I didn8217;t have a separate room. Later on, we did. I remember the old-fashioned gramophone8230; the winding type, which my mother had brought from her old home in Punjab. There are vivid memories of a lot of music being played in the house, lots of records stacked on the shelves.

This is uncanny, but one particular tune that I used to frequently hum and was fond of, but which had deserted my memory for years, came back to me very suddenly when one evening I was playing the sitar all by myself at home. Quite unconsciously, I hit upon a familiar note, which I felt I had either created impromptu or heard somewhere. It was all very strange because creating music isn8217;t all that simple when you are not a musician. That8217;s when it suddenly dawned on me that the tune I was playing was in fact the tune that I8217;d been hearing in my childhood 8211; when I was four or perhaps five-year-old.

Well, my father as you know, was researching at the Allahabad University. He would be off to work early morning, after which my mother would go about her routine 8211; looking after home and us kids. My brother Bunty and I travelled to school which was quite far from the city. Later, when I was a little older and we could afford it, I used to travel on the bicycle. Before we had the bicycle, we used to go walking. And summer in Allahabad can be quite traumatic with the heat and dust. There were times when my brother would get tired, so I8217;d pick him up and carry him on my back, I still remember those moments vividly!

Well, basically what most parents tell their children. That is, to tell the truth, and to fight your own battles.

Yes. Once I got into a schoolboy fight and I came home crying because four older boys had bashed me up. My mother was astonished, told me this was no way for a boy to behave. She asked me not to cry like a weakling, but to go and fight them, instead. You will have to fight your own battles. I8217;m not going to do it for you.8217; So, that8217;s what I did. I went back and fought the four boys very bravely.

It was a very peaceful life and we were very content. I remember mother being very beautiful in her youth. She kept herself abreast with the latest fashions. Coming from a very affluent family in Punjab, her upbringing had been very modern, quite Western. She was therefore, very progressive and in many ways ahead of her times. Also, she treated us kids as adults. When she couldn8217;t meet with our demands, she said so upfront. There were deprivations, but nothing so serious that we couldn8217;t cope with. As a kid, I remember asking her for two rupees to become a member of a club, newly constituted in the school. She refused. I was deeply hurt, but accepted that it was for the best. The incident helped me value small expenditures.

My mother was and still is a very beautiful lady. She hails from Punjab and in those times, Lahore and Delhi were looked upon as the places from where all the beautiful women came. They were the cities that set trends in fashions. Therefore, it is said, that when my mother was being brought to Allahabad by my father, there was a lot of curiosity about her.

Both my parents are extremely strong people. My father, of course, is less vocal, but his sheer presence exudes discipline. When we were young, we were used to seeing father dressed in the army uniform. He was with the UTC and at that time, soon after the war, there was this University Officers Training Course or something like that, where civilians went in for army training. It was said that father was a very efficient officer, well known for his temper. Not just outside, but even at home everybody shuddered at his discipline. Later on, of course, he sobered down.

I cannot answer that specifically, for, even now, he has a very strong mind. Whenever he decides on something, his word is final, nobody can change it. But my mother tells me that he had a very, very strong temper.

Most certainly, yes. My brother and I used to shudder at the thought of even having to present ourselves in front of him.

Silly pranks that young boys play, but mainly for misconduct8230; We were fired for playing in the lawn and flinging mud at each other. When we did so, we got so carried away that we invariably landed in the verandah with soiled feet. This was unforgiveable, and as punishment, we were asked to clean up the whole house. They were very demanding on discipline 8211; we had to be home at a certain hour 8211; which was usually before dark. Father was always goading us to study. He used to get upset if we didn8217;t do well in school.

Quite good. While I was in Allahabad, I used to stand amongst the first three, but after shifting to Sherwood, I turned into an average student. I8217;d say I was mediocre 8211; I stood around the 9th or 10th in the class and sometimes even lower down, 14th or 15th rank. I was a second divisioner in Senior Cambridge and a second divisioner in my B.Sc at the Delhi University.

When we were at St Mary8217;s Convent in Allahabad, it was co-education, but later, it was divided into two sections 8211; boys and girls section. So, after my play school and KG, I was shifted to the Boys8217; High School, where I studied upto 7th standard. I next joined Sherwood in the 8th standard and continued right upto my Senior Cambridge, after which I joined the Delhi University in 1959 at the Kirorimal. I took admission in Chandigarh8217;s Government College for a month. The reason being, I couldn8217;t secure admission in the college I wanted 8211; St Stephen8217;s. In the meanwhile, like a fool, I hadn8217;t sought admission in a substitute college, because of which I had to try my options outside Delhi. Subsequently of course, I got admission in Kirorimal and I returned to Delhi.

Jaya on Amitabh

I remember vividly the first time I set eyes on him. It was at the FTII, Pune. The next time I saw him was on the sets of Guddi. Hrishida Mukherjee introduced us. We did namaste, then he stood in a corner and continued to stare. I was embarassed. I thought to myself, What a strange man8230; How can he stare at people like that? Over the years, I got used to it, but even now, I8217;ve to constantly keep a check on him. He does it unconsciously, little realising that it intimidates people. Our shooting together didn8217;t begin immediately. Later, of course, he was replaced with Samit Bhaanja, because Hrishida discovered that he was doing Saat Hindustani. Even after he got dropped out of the film, he continued to hang around on our sets. Often, he8217;d drop by with his friends, Jalal Agha and Anwar Ali. They would come in big groups and talk in code language, much to the amusement of all of us. On the day Samit and I did our first shot together, they too were there. Standing in a corner and staringagain. I knew they were discussing me.

The casual atmosphere on the sets helped the relationship. On Hrishida8217;s sets, everything is very informal. Nobody is treated like a star and nobody behaves like one. Everyone shares make-up rooms and lunches. Slowly we realised we were moving in the same circle of friends. Nitin Mukesh, Sushilaji, Hrishida8217;s assistant, Romu Sippy and Anwar Ali. That we were both living alone in Mumbai, our problems were similar and as time went by, the relationship strengthened. He was, I think, quite aware that I liked him, but not completely confident of how strongly I felt. My feelings for him were on the same lines. I could see clearly that he enjoyed my company, but beyond that there was no proof of his fondness for me. He was too refined and reserved to ask me openly.

It was much later, when we went for the outdoor location of Ek Nazar in Pune, that we got serious. I cannot remember the chronological order of events, but we had a massive argument before leaving and he was sulking with me. Now this was a new side to his personality that I wan8217;t exposed to earlier. After being very charming, he had suddenly turned very cold. When I mentioned this to his friend Anwar Ali, he defended Amit with, No, no, it cannot be. He is very fond of you and talks about you all the time.8217; Anyway, things hadn8217;t been sorted out between us and when we landed in Pune, his Highness was still giving me bad vibes. To make matters worse, we had a scrap on the very first day. That too over something very silly. I always carry an elaichi box in my handbag. So on the sets, as I was offering elaichi to everyone, I offered him as well. He looked at the box, at me and then turned away. His attitude made me mad! Irritated, I turned away too. But by temperament, I8217;m not the brooding kind, so afterkeeping quiet for a few hours, I dropped my defences and got chatting with him8230; Again, he snapped at me. I tried asking him what the problem was, but he refused to answer. Exasperated, I decided to leave him alone.

Next day, there was no shooting. My hairdresser, Begum, and I were in the hotel room just about to order our lunch. Suddenly the phone rang. It was Nadiraji. She said, What are you doing?8217; I said, Nothing, ordering food.8217; She said, Come over to my room. We8217;ll eat together.8217; I was not at all in a mood for socialising, but didn8217;t want to refuse a senior actress. When I reached Nadiraji8217;s room, he was there too. Sitting on the sofa, still swollen-faced, grumpy. I8217;m not sure if someone had warned Nadiraji about us fighting, or it was sheer intuition, but the minute I entered, she left us alone on some pretext. When she came back, she said, What? You guys still haven8217;t made up?8217; She was hell-bent on making us patch up. Come on, fight it out,8217; she ordered. We did. Nadiraji did not interfere. All the while she sat there, smoking her cigarette. In the end, without wanting to know whose fault it was, she made Amit apologise to me. Respectful that he is, he did, but half-heartedly. After this, we went to ourindividual rooms.

Late in the evening, he phoned me to invite me out. I refused. But after a little coaxing, I agreed. Those days, his constant line was, I care for you, do you?8217; But these lines were always uttered in passing, always said as a joke, never seriously. He never ever officially proposed to me. Until the very end, I was unsure of what he thought of me.

We were together all the time, spending almost all our free time with each other, but we never extracted promises. I was aware of his preoccupations. He had this unique way of judging situations, resolving conflicts. For instance, in a given situation, he8217;d say, If she says this or if she does this, she8217;s my type.8217; And as it happened, I always did that. I sometimes feel that he married me because I did all the right things. He wasn8217;t an easy boyfriend. Introverted and hypersensitive, but because I knew him as well as I did, I coped. He was forever surprising me. An incident I can never forget is the time I was returning from an outdoor shooting in Delhi. My flight was delayed and I felt miserable because it was the day he was leaving on his long outdoor stint and this meant that we would not be meeting now for two-and-a-half months. Desperate, I kept calling him every one hour from the airport. He sounded calm. In that case, we8217;ll meet when I get back,8217; he said in a matter-of-fact tone. I was mad! Here Iwas going berserk and he didn8217;t care! Late in the evening, when I finally landed in Mumbai, I drove directly to his house even though I knew he wouldn8217;t be at home. The servant opened the door. Inside, he was sitting on the chair, reading. Did you really think that I would go away without seeing you?8217; he asked.

Next day, I was surprised to hear from him at our usual hour. Where are you?8217; I asked him, hoping that he had probably missed his flight or maybe even cancelled the outdoor schedule. At the location,8217; he answered and my heart sank8230; Only later, he told me that he was in Mumbai, and that he bad backed out of the film because he felt that he was not suited for the role. The film was Siddharth. So typical of him. Even during his struggling days. Amit had an extremely well-maintained home. It was an unusually pretty looking two-bedroom apartment, run efficiently by servants. That8217;s Amit, he8217;s systematic in everything he does. Unlike me8230; It8217;s funny, but we8217;ve never gone out dating in the traditional sense of the word. We always moved about in groups. He8217;s quite conservative that way. He dislikes aggressive women. Little things can put him off8230;I8217;ve learnt to accept him as he is. Just as he has learnt to accept me as I am. It comes out of years of togetherness, I guess. Marriage has a way of mellowingyou. It has a way of settling you down. What was a calamity two years ago, doesn8217;t seem to matter today. Priorities change. When you are newly married, you spend as much time as possible together. Then with kids, the focus changes. I have enjoyed all my different phases with him. Looking back, I must say that Amit has been fairly consistent with me. He never went overboard. Nor did he at any stage, neglect me, I8217;ve always had a fair degree of attention from him. Romance can sustain only upto a point. From biryani one has to sooner or later come down to plain rice, and whenever that happens, it8217;s bound to pinch. In the past, he wanted to immediately share everything8230;Today, he doesn8217;t have to tell me what he likes or dislikes. I know.

The passing years have changed him and it8217;s normal to change. Certain things remain consistent however. He was fun-loving then, he is fun-loving now. He had a serious side to him even in childhood and he is serious even today. He laughs, jokes, horses around, exactly the way he did when I fist met him8230; Still deep in my heart, I don8217;t associate clowning with Amit. That8217;s not the real person. A lot of people tell me. But he is such a flirt!8217; Which man isn8217;t? When the roots spread in marriage, men don8217;t flirt seriously. They do it for the fun of it and quite frankly, women have always been a problem with Amit.