‘What took me 30-35 years in cinema was achieved in 3 or 30 minutes on TV’

SS: Growing up in Allahabad, did you ever imagine you will become such a big star one day?
AB: I was fond of theatre but I never imagined I would join the films some day. It’s a very trying time for a young man when he finishes his college, he finishes university, as to what he should do in life. There weren’t too many opportunities when I finished college, that was around ’62, and there is a desire to stand on your own feet, to be able to do something for the family, to be able to take on all the responsibilities of being the eldest. I was no different from anyone else and I came to Calcutta, where I was offered a job in a managing agency house and I spent about five-and-a-half, six years there and then suddenly decided to pursue my extra-curricular interests, which was theatre, by joining the film industry.

SS: And now you are loved
all over…
AB: I don’t know about this following but yes, the medium that I am in has provoked this kind of interest. Cinema is a universal culture and obviously, people get associated with cinema… I’m just another member of (this) fraternity. It attracts a lot of attention because of what we do on screen. So really the credit should go to the medium rather than the person involved.

SS: All your first films flopped. Did you think then you’d made a wrong choice in terms of a career?
AB: Whenever you have a failure in life, it’s a depressing phase… and I was no different. It would’ve been extremely embarrassing for me to get back to Calcutta to my old job. But somehow, you know, encouragement and support from the parents and the family just kept me going and things changed.

SS: And, of course, then came Zanjeer, Deewar, Trishul, Muqaddar ka Sikandar and the great angry young man of Indian cinema was born.
AB: Well, definitely Zanjeer was a huge commercial success. All credit to the writers Salim-Javed for having created that film, that role and that wonderful script, (giving) me an opportunity to express myself.

SS: Was it also something about the times, the way you walked, the rebel in you, the anger…
AB: That again was more the creation of the writers (than my contribution). I think they felt that it was time that they created an individual because the system and the establishment had so weakened itself during those crucial years that they required a single individual to stand up and virtually fight his own battle. I just happened to be an artist who fortunately came across the script and they thought me fit enough to play this role. Anyone who would’ve done that role would’ve succeeded but the script itself was powerful, the medium was powerful, what they were saying through that screenplay was powerful and that was the reason as for the success of this film.

SS: After a mid-’90s career dip, you came back bigger than ever before, this time through television.
AB: I found the experience to be just something quite wondrous. I would say what took me 30-35 years to achieve in cinema was achieved in almost three or 30 minutes via television. And, it gave me an opportunity to interact with the people I knew were there but I had never had an opportunity to meet.

SS: And at 60, do you think you have finally broken that other jinx as well that no scripts were available for senior accomplished actors?
AB: I think that the senior citizen is still a long way away from getting that kind of acceptability in Indian cinema but yes, there have been a few interesting roles that have come my way.

SS: Indian cinema is a mass escapist medium. Does that make it flimsy, non-serious?
AB: Just because it caters to the common man doesn’t mean it’s flimsy. I think the common man is a very important person in society. They choose our leaders, our fashion, our music, they choose our lifestyle, our way of thinking, they build a community, they build a nation. We must respect them and if Indian cinema respects them and creates films around them or creates films that they like, I don’t see anything wrong in that.