At 76, Amitabh Bachchan is still looking to reinvent himself as far as acting is concerned. And he has done it again in his upcoming film Te3n.
The actor plays John Biswas, who has a trademark scooter in the film. Says Bachchan, “Back in the days, we weren’t affluent. Those were the days when if anyone had a scooter, he would be the hero of the college. All of us would borrow his scooter and go on joyrides. Unfortunately, I was out of touch and had to learn to ride a scooter for the film all over again. Luckily, I had done a scooter commercial and was presented with one. I practised riding it in my bungalow daily for my role.”
Since the topic of his bungalow came up, he went on to explain the names. “‘Pratiksha’ has been named after one of Babuji’s poems. And ‘Jalsa’ because we celebrated our daughter’s wedding by entering this bungalow. Actually, the bungalow was supposed to be named after the first woman in our family, ‘Mansa’. We have recently bought another bungalow which is between ‘Jalsa’ and ‘Janak’ (their office). We have named this one Mansa.”
Te3n is based in Kolkata, and Bachchan has a long connect with the city; after all, he married a Bengali girl. “Bengali is not only a sweet language, but they are very loving people as well. Even today whenever I go to Kolkata I meet all my old friends.”
Amitabh adds with a laugh, “After living in Kolkata for seven-eight years (he was working in the city), I realised that Bengal had arrived into my house, I got married to Jaya.”
Lastly, about his love for writing poetry, he says, “Sometimes I do pen a few lines, like a common man. I’m not an ardent poet like Babuji. I remember my mom would always say, ‘One poet in the family is enough’. However, I am not a very regular writer… I can rhyme a few lines sometimes.”
Who’s the boss?
When Amitabh was shooting for Te3N, the makers saw a few people constantly by his side. It was later learnt that they were the first bosses of the actor.
Regarding this interesting anecdote Amitabh told Deccan Chronicle, “Whenever I go to Kolkata, I am in touch with them. I don’t think you can forget them. Your first job, your first boss and I feel that the term boss has a certain kind of image in our minds. He is our lawyer, our guru, he is someone who knows everything, and he rules us. There is respect for him... When they come to meet me, I introduce them to others as my boss. I still call them ‘boss’.”
