Amitabh Bachchan has turned a year older today, but ask any of his peers and they will tell you he’s a lot younger at heart and in his mind that the current crop of Gen Z stars. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who has directed Amitabh Bachchan in films and TV commercials, reveals the love and passion that he’s seen in the legend of the Indian big screen. Read on…
I first met Amitabh Bachchan when I had to direct a mobile commercial with him. His name, those days, had a huge impact on our subconscious. He was for us an illusion… 80 feet tall! The internet was not as huge those days and he was largely inaccessible to the audience. He greeted me with, ‘Hi, I am Amitabh Bachchan.’ I was both happy and nervous to work with him. Happy because I’d be the first advertising director to direct him. Nervous because I didn’t know how effective I would be. “So far you’ve been controlling us. Now you will become 8 inches tall inside the idiot box. And I will be controlling you, the remote in my hand,” I told him. He laughed and said, “Well, this is the future!” And what a visionary he proved to be.
We went on to make 20-25 commercials. But through the years my relationship with him has been that of a student-teacher. I’ve learnt a lot from him. He doesn’t give you gyaan, you learn even from his silence. He’s spiritually connected with acting. That kind of rubbed off on me and I started seeing my work take a turn for the better. I took to making feature films. What also turned me towards making movies were the two music videos, Eir Bir Phate and Son machchli (from his album Aby Baby, 1996), I did with him. Both were written by the late Harivanshrai Bachchan. Then we did the second album Kabhi Kabhie. Amitabh Bachchan reciting Sahir Ludhianvi is the ultimate. Later, Aks (2001) happened. I remember it was 6.30 pm when I gave him the script of Aks at Jalsa, his home.
He was flying to Delhi and took the script along. At 10.30 pm, the same night, he rang me up and whispered, “I’ve just landed in Delhi. What were you drinking when you wrote Aks?” I said that I was high on the idea, the philosophy. He said, “Let’s do it.” Amitji plays the good inspector, who kills the evil Manoj Bajpayee in Aks. Then Manoj’s soul enters Amitji’s body. So good and evil reside in the same person. I couldn’t have found a better actor to portray the two facets simultaneously.
As an actor, Amitji enjoys experimenting and reinventing. That’s why he’s transcended his generation. It’s not about being ahead of your times, you have to be with it. And he’s always been with the times. A man, who understands time is a wise man. As a director you have to challenge him with ideas. Otherwise, he gets disappointed. He’s like race abhi toh shuru hui hai. That kind of freshness from such a senior actor is amazing. He’s never complacent. He never dwells on his past achievements. If you work with him, you get addicted to him. He’s like a baby who’s out there to discover something all the time. Of course, he’s temperamental and moody. But somewhere he hasn’t let the child in him die. Amitabh Bachchan is born every day. Unmein kaam aur jeene ki shiddat hai. He’s like a fakir, who’s bestowed with beautiful things around him. What he’s taught me is to give myself the permission to fail. A person, who has touched such heights through his work, has also failed at times. So failure is the essential ingredient in this curry called success. Above all, there’s always a twinkle in his eyes. Whatever ups and downs in life he may have been through, he hasn’t lost his sense of humour. It means that he respects both the humour and the irony of life. When I came to Mumbai from Delhi, I found a family in him. For the past 16 years, I’ve been part of his family every Holi and Diwali. Whenever I’ve felt low, I’ve called him… even at 2 am. He has been my support system. I must have troubled him with my problems. In this bad world of films, you need to trust someone. And in him I’ve found someone I can trust with my life. Whether it was Rang De Basanti, Delhi-6, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag or Mirzya… Amitji is the first person to watch my films. He has a place in my heart, which belongs only to him. And he has given me a space in his heart free of rent. The beauty is that together we’ve created something, of which both of us are proud. If I get another opportunity to work with him, it has to be my best work and his too. Having said that our relationship is way beyond work.