‘I Want the Opportunity to Do Good Work!’

Veteran superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who made a name for himself in Indian cinema as the ‘angry young man’ in the 1970s, and has a filmography of over 200 movies in a career that began over 50 years ago, turned 83 on October 11.

Q What is the secret of your longevity?

There is no secret. It’s only luck and hard work. I know it could all be gone in a flash. I had lost it around 1999-2000 when a series of my films had a routine run. Yash Raj Films’ Mohabbatein and Kaun Banega Crorepati brought me back.

Q Did you expect KBC to go this far?

I had no expectations, or maybe I had low expectations…I don’t know. It was all Sameer Nair’s vision. All I knew when we started shooting for KBC was that I was committed to shoot for 85 episodes.

Q Your fans are super excited about your birthday, as usual…

I’m grateful, I can only reciprocate with my good wishes, hoping to live up to their expectations. Fans are fans. They do all kinds of over-the-top things to express their adoration and adulation. I don’t approve of building a temple, doing havan and writing letters in blood. Makes me uncomfortable. But I can’t stop them. They get hurt when you stop them. I don’t want to hurt their sentiments. But I don’t want them to go to extreme lengths to show their love.

Q You sometimes resent the invasion of your privacy and that of your family?

No, I don’t think it is too heavy a price to pay for someone with a celebrity status. It’s a fall-out of a very common human nature. People are interested in knowing what the celebrity is going through. If you are perturbed by the invasion, stop being a celebrity.

Your birthday wish?

I want health and happiness for my family and myself…and the opportunity to do good work. Basically, I just want to be alive.