Over the last few decades, Amitabh Bachchan has portrayed varied characters on the big screen, but this is the first time that the actor will play a wheel chair-bound man— in Wazir. He tells us that challenging as it was, he gave the role his best shot.
“When you take on a role in a script, you agree to perform it to your best capability. I hope I have been able to do that. That is my professional responsibility. The final decision shall of course rest with the audience.”
He disagrees that this character was any different than the ones he has played before — in terms of difficulty. “Just because one is confined to a wheel chair in an entire film does not mean that one is being asked to do something special or ‘difficult’. Being on your feet without any so called disability can be equally difficult.”
To his relief however, Big B’s chair in Wazir was a rather sophisticated one. “Yes, I have the benefit of my mobility being taken care of by the technology and mechanism of the chair that I am confined to. It gets mobile on its own. As an actor I have immense problems of mobility, even in an ‘able’ condition!”
The film brought together Big B and Javed Akhtar—a combination that has proved to be legendary in the past. Was it nostalgic to have the actor-writer combination back on the sets? “Javed saab and I never met on the sets of Wazir. His contribution to the film has been behind those proverbial closed curtains, or to put it more succinctly, parde ke peeche. And those have been his greatest contributions.”
What was it working with his son, Farhan like? “In a film project, the rapport related to fellow co-stars is determined by the script. Both Farhan and I accepted the script, and so one can safely say that our rapport was acceptable too.” Mr Bachchan has good things to say about director Bejoy Nambiar as well. “He is a dedicated and a competent director. It has been a most satisfying experience,” he says.
