Amitabh: Like God, he too is everywhere!
I never really doubted Amitabh Bachchan's popularity. But I never would have digested that people who don't understand a word of Hindi would flock to theatres to see the towering personality do what he does best.
Bachchan's movies, are sold out, at least a week before they're released here in Qatar. I was rather surprised when I saw a serpentine queue of Qataris trying for Bunty Aur Bubli tickets.
Ask them anything, they won't understand your language. All they'll say is "Amitabh Bachchan" with a huge excited grin on their faces.
Julius, a colleage, has been here for 27 years. He is a part-time actor too. He directs, and acts in plays whenever he gets a chance to.
No denying, though I haven't yet asked him that, I believe, he too, like every other enthusiastic actor, must have tried his luck in Mumbai, where he belongs, before landing up here to retire from the rat race and make "easy" money (at the cost of an exciting life).
But I know he's good, considering he's practically invited to the theatres here to direct or act in plays, which are quite popular with the British expats and even Qataris.
"Amitabh is God," he stated the rather frequently-voiced sentence. "He's learnt it the hard way."
He then began telling me...
There was a time after Khuda Gawah, when Amitabh was not wanted anymore. He had fallen - fallen from a great height, suddenly. Such was the fall that every inch of the man was in debt. That was the time no one came to his rescue.
He actually had to go beg Yash Chopra for a role. That's when Mohabattein was concieved. The man was undoubtedly a great actor. But imagine Amitabh at work in desperation for a hit. Where he knows he cannot afford to mess this one up!
This was when Star Plus CEO had offered him Kaun Banega Crorepati.
TV was, and probably still is, meant for outcast actors. "TV is not for you," Rakesh Kumar, director of Aks, had told him then. "Gods can't fit into TV."
But that was Amitabh's only way out. He had hit bullseye.
Today, Indians keep blabbering about, how Amitabh is "over-doing it" and is "seen too much". The man is out to make money.
If he is in "every second Indian movie and in every third advertisement seen on TV" it's because they're being offered to him.
Kids, barely 10-12 years of age look at him in awe. He's over 60. Those kids haven't even seen the actor during his peak - when even the stupidest movies of his like Mahaan, Ganga Jamuna Saraswati, or Aaj Ka Arjun became hits only because they were Amitabh Bachchan films.
For us he's always been Amitabh Bachchan, a man who is a great actor, was a rage in the 1980s and early 1990s, went off screen for a few years, was in debt, and then made a mighty come-back.
But probably when you see his face in an interview next time, you might understand where he's coming from. When he wears sunglasses at night, or indoors, you might understand he's screaming out loud, that "Buggers, my name is Amitabh Bachchan. Screw you!"
Bachchan's movies, are sold out, at least a week before they're released here in Qatar. I was rather surprised when I saw a serpentine queue of Qataris trying for Bunty Aur Bubli tickets.
Ask them anything, they won't understand your language. All they'll say is "Amitabh Bachchan" with a huge excited grin on their faces.
Julius, a colleage, has been here for 27 years. He is a part-time actor too. He directs, and acts in plays whenever he gets a chance to.
No denying, though I haven't yet asked him that, I believe, he too, like every other enthusiastic actor, must have tried his luck in Mumbai, where he belongs, before landing up here to retire from the rat race and make "easy" money (at the cost of an exciting life).
But I know he's good, considering he's practically invited to the theatres here to direct or act in plays, which are quite popular with the British expats and even Qataris.
"Amitabh is God," he stated the rather frequently-voiced sentence. "He's learnt it the hard way."
He then began telling me...
There was a time after Khuda Gawah, when Amitabh was not wanted anymore. He had fallen - fallen from a great height, suddenly. Such was the fall that every inch of the man was in debt. That was the time no one came to his rescue.
He actually had to go beg Yash Chopra for a role. That's when Mohabattein was concieved. The man was undoubtedly a great actor. But imagine Amitabh at work in desperation for a hit. Where he knows he cannot afford to mess this one up!
This was when Star Plus CEO had offered him Kaun Banega Crorepati.
TV was, and probably still is, meant for outcast actors. "TV is not for you," Rakesh Kumar, director of Aks, had told him then. "Gods can't fit into TV."
But that was Amitabh's only way out. He had hit bullseye.
Today, Indians keep blabbering about, how Amitabh is "over-doing it" and is "seen too much". The man is out to make money.
If he is in "every second Indian movie and in every third advertisement seen on TV" it's because they're being offered to him.
Kids, barely 10-12 years of age look at him in awe. He's over 60. Those kids haven't even seen the actor during his peak - when even the stupidest movies of his like Mahaan, Ganga Jamuna Saraswati, or Aaj Ka Arjun became hits only because they were Amitabh Bachchan films.
For us he's always been Amitabh Bachchan, a man who is a great actor, was a rage in the 1980s and early 1990s, went off screen for a few years, was in debt, and then made a mighty come-back.
But probably when you see his face in an interview next time, you might understand where he's coming from. When he wears sunglasses at night, or indoors, you might understand he's screaming out loud, that "Buggers, my name is Amitabh Bachchan. Screw you!"
posted by Once the Conman at 11:04 AM
1 Comments:
"...was a rage in the 1980s and early 1990s..."
Err, Rohit, AB was at the height of his superstardom in the mid and late 1970s, and maybe the first two years of the 1980s, after which the downward curve began. The world didn't begin the year you were born, you know ;)
(as you can see, I've finally got the time to go through your archives!)
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