Abhishek Bachchan: ‘No director wanted to take on the responsibility of launching me’ Bollywood

Bollywood December 26, 2023

Abhishek Bachchan has detailed his struggle to make his first film in the early 2000s. At the Hindi actor roundtable on ‘Gharatta Plus’, Abhishek said that despite film magazines touting that Amitabh Bachchan’s son is gearing up for his debut, there are filmmakers who want to cast him. revealed that there was no one. (Also read: Salman Khan and Abhishek Bachchan greet with hug at Anand Pandit’s birthday party. Watch)

Abhishek Bachchan talks about the hardships of making his first film (PTI)

What Abhishek said

“There was a lot of chatter and excitement about me joining[the film industry]. It wasn’t my fault, it was my child’s fault. I had no interest in working with them. I think I met every director I could meet, and they all said, “We don’t want the responsibility of monitoring you” and were very respectful. Abhishek told the roundtable.

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Abhishek then recalled how he was cast in his debut film. He started working on a period drama, then titled Samjhauta Express, with his friend and advertising filmmaker Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, but was unable to find actors for his directorial debut. could not. Abhishek grew a mustache and beard for the role, but when the two suggested Amitabh Bachchan to produce the film under the ABCL banner, he said the script was “bakwas”.

How Abhishek made his first film

To boost his son’s morale, Amitabh took Abhishek to the Filmfare Awards, where filmmaker JP Dutta spotted him. He had won the Best Picture award that night for his blockbuster Border, and a few days later approached Abhishek about his next film, about a descendant of the Mughal Empire, the son of Bahadur Shah Zafar. did. Although the film never materialized, JP ultimately cast Abhishek opposite fellow newcomer Kareena Kapoor in the 2000 cross-border romance Refugee.

Abhishek also said that after hearing from his father that the script for ‘Samjhauta Express’ was ‘bakwas’, Rakesh returned home, drank himself to death and wrote the script for ‘Axu’, which would later become his directorial film, ‘with a vengeance’. ” he recalled what he had written. It was his debut film and starred Amitabh himself.