Abhishek Bachchan may have several films in pipeline now, but there was a point when he was self-admittedly doubting himself as an actor. In an interview with Galatta Plus, he recalled the time when he approached his father and veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan with a confession. (Also Read – Abhishek Bachchan says he’s ‘immensely thankful’ to Aishwarya Rai: ‘I’m very lucky I…’)
When Abhishek confessed to Amitabh
“I went through a phase in my career when a lot of my movies weren’t working. Critics were panning my performances, no matter who I worked with. I say ‘who I worked with’ because I worked with some of the biggest directors, hoping that okay, they’ll teach me stuff and rectify stuff that I haven’t managed to do. But nothing was happening. In a weaker moment, which is embarrassing for me to think of now, I went to my dad and said, ‘We need to talk. I think I made a big mistake. I’m not cut out for this because no matter what I do, it isn’t working. I’ve tried all kinds of cinema, genres, and filmmakers. I’m just not able to do it. Maybe it’s time for me to be honest with myself and say, ‘Hey, you’re not cut out for this. You’re not good enough. Find something else to do,’” Abhishek recalled.
How Amitabh responded
“He reassured me. He said, ‘I’m saying this to you as your senior, not as your father. You’re nowhere near the finished product. You have a lot of improving to do. But I’m noticing improvement in every film of yours. There’s a hidden good actor within you. How good you become is up to you and how hard you want to work. The only way you’re going to be able to polish your craft is by working. So go out there, whatever film you get, just sign and work.’ And that’s what I did. I just went out. I didn’t care what kind of role it was – supporting, secondary, tertiary, I did everything until I found the confidence in myself. And then until, from the box office perspective, I could deliver at the box office and people started banking on me as a leading man again,” Abhishek added.
Abhishek referred to his father as his “reference point” always. Like his son, Amitabh also tasted success quite late. After seven of his films didn’t work at the box office, he broke through as the leading man in Prakash Mehra’s 1973 blockbuster Zanjeer, which kickstarted his iconic era as the Angry Young Man in Hindi cinema.
Abhishek was probably alluding to the time after R Balki’s 2009 hit Paa, in which he shared the screen space with Amitabh, which also fetched him a National Award (as the producer). He went on to do films with Mani Ratnam (Raavan), Ashutosh Gowariker (Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey), Game (Abhinay Deo), Dum Maaro Dum (Rohan Sippy), and Players (Abbas-Mustan), but none of them worked at the box office. He then returned to a successful streak with Rohit Shetty’s buddy comedy Bol Bachchan (2012), Vijay Krishna Acharya’s action thriller Dhoom 3 (2013), and Farah Khan’s heist comedy Happy New Year (2014).
