THE TRANSFORMATION OF MR.BACHCHAN

Ali Peter John

Those were days when Amitabh Bachchan's bungalow, "Prateeksha "was not a palace , fort or a garrison like"Jalsa"is today.There were no scary-looking bouncers standing at the gate or inside "Prateeksha".Wilfred Vaz who was an Ex-Indian Airforce man was in charge of the security and Chandrasekhar Wagh (who later became the secretary of Bal Thackeray) and Gangadharan were the office secretaries and Sheetal Jain was Amitabh's personal secretary. I was lucky to be allowed into the bungalow whenever I wanted to. One morning,when Amitabh who was living life like a retired actor when he had taken that famous sabbatical, I walked in to see Amitabh in a stark white beard, I had never seen him like that before.

He was busy trying to trap a rat while his staff kept watching. He said, "ye mera aur uske beech ka maamla hai, koi aur dakal nahi dega. Isko toh main aaj pakadkar hi rahoonga "and he didn't rest till he had the rat in his trap. He later told me how he was spending his time at home ,looking after things he didn't have the time for when he was busy playing the angry young man. He said he spent his evenings and nights seeing all the places in Bombay he had not seen before .He had at last found time to pursue his hobbies and passions like music and photography....

I could not even guess that he was going through a bad patch financially and was looking for ways to get out of the mess and the distress he had got himself into after starting ABCL ,his dream company which had turned into a nightmare for him....

A few weeks later he realised that the only thing he was good at was acting and seriously thought about getting back as an actor. He walked to the house of Yash Chopra and told him that he was broke and needed work. Yash told him that he was not making any film then, but his son Aaditya was planning a film .
Amitabh met Aaditya and the result was that he found his second life as an actor in "Mohabbatein "with Shah Rukh Khan in a key role.....

Little did Amitabh, Yash Chopra, Aaditya or anyone else know that Amitabh Bachchan was beginning a new journey as an elderly character actor who was still capable of holding the fort even though it was a time when the young Khans, Kumars and Devgns had started their reign in the industry...

He was so good in "Mohabbatein "as the head of a "Gurukul" that other filmmakers old and new were soon planning films with him in mature and serious characters.To add to his good fortune, he started his first affair with the small screen with KBC .The roles kept coming in and KBC created a mass hysteria. And Amitabh who was once the angry young man and at times the lover was know playing very strong characters in films like "Baaghban ", "Baabul ", "Pink","Piku ",Badla the" Sarkar" franchise and down to "102 Not Out". He was bigger and busier than all the younger stars. He was the superstar among stars and was also one of the wealthiest men in the country. He had fought for and won back his glory which was at stake after the ABCL debacle...

And today as I write my umpteenth piece on him, it is just a few hours to go when Amitabh who is know seventy seven is about to face one more big test in his life and career which have been a series of tests.His new film, "Gulaabo Sitaabo "is to be his first film to have its world premiere on an OTT platform and is to be released on Amazon Prime Time.

I have seen the trailer of the film and I cannot stop wondering how the Vijay the angry young man could and has transformed himself to paly a character who is old, weak and still strong. And I find it difficult to believe that the Angry young man who spoke lines like "Peter ,ab main ye taala tumhare jeb se chaabi nikalkar kholoongaa"has now to listen to a young man threatening him with the line,"nahi toh thok daalungaa ".It is like a strange wheel coming full circle.

I have seen some other great actors reinventing and resurrecting and transforming themselves, but it is only an Amitabh Bachchan who was destined to do it so completely, throughly and with so much of courage ,confidence and the will to face challenges and conquer them.

Where will this new-old Amitabh Bachchan go from here ? Only time, his fellow -traveller and God who he believes is with him all the time know and will decide in the time to come.

MR. BACHCHAN & HIS BOUTS WITH TIME

Time has always been an admirer of the man, stood by him steadfastly all the time. Time has walked with him through rough and tough times. Time has always been true to him, and it has tested and tried him. Amitabh Bachchan and time form a very strong mutual admiration society. Time has been with him in his battles with death and he has overcome death with time.

Some examples with Amitabh and his tryst with time: I invite him to a college day function in a faraway suburb in Mumbai. He hardly takes two minutes to accept my invitation extended to him just twenty four hours before the function. It is a Sunday and his drivers are on leave. He asks me if I have a car, I say I don't. He wastes no time, just gets into a Maruti-800 and asks me to get in and join him. He drives as I instruct him because he has never been to the place we had to reach. We reach the far away college ten minutes before time and both the organizers and the students are surprised by his reaching even as they are giving the last touches to the stage.

It is Sunday again and he is in Madh Island, a sea-side resort in Mumbai because his doctors advised him to. It is co-incidentally Sunday again and there are no drivers. He again asks me whether I have a car. I say no, and he says it is high-time I had one. He gets into an old Ambassador and I sheepishly get into it and we drive all way to the other end of another place once again to reach before the organizers can put some order into the function they have organized. I invite him to unveil a plaque to honour my ‘guru’ and his ‘guru’, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. He is very, very busy but he makes all kinds of adjustments and reaches the function before all the other celebrities who are supposed to reach the place.

I have seen him being invited as the Chief Guest at several muhurats of films and he has always reached before the stars of the films can. And some stories about his respect for time when it comes to work. He has reached a studio even before the gates are thrown open by some still sleepy security men. There are other times when he has reached a studio before any one from the unit can and is found watering the plants in the studio. I have seen him waiting for Govinda for a shoot for more than three hours.

I have been part of his four-hour long wait for Madhuri Dixit when he has been kept waiting for her sitting in a chair for all the four hours and then receiving her without a trace of any annoyance showing on his face, behaviour or in the long photo session we had gone through. He was a ‘pain’ for all those political campaign managers when he was involved with politics because he always kept his word when it came to time. He has made it in time even at times when the whole city reels and staggers under a series of traffic jams. And if by chance he has not been able to make it in time, he more than makes up for the time lost after apologizing to the people concerned. He has taken an auto from the Airport to reach shooting of his friend, Tinnu Anand’s film because his staff had not reached the Airport.

I took a chance by inviting him to my wedding reception and forgot all about it. During the reception I got a message from his secretary who said he would be at the reception at 8.30 pm sharp. I was surprised but I also knew that he would keep his word. At 8.25, I asked my newly wedded wife to look at the gate. She wondered why and before she could look at me again it was 8.30 pm and he was right there before me, and the entire stunned and amazed crowd. I invited him to the release of my autobiography, “Life, Bits and Pieces”. He was shooting three shifts that day but he and his efficient secretaries, Sheetal and Rosie kept informing me about his movements from time to time and he was there at exactly the right time. I have won several bets because of this strange man’s passion for punctuality and his respect for time.

Just some months ago, Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar had planned to have his own awards named after him for people who had contributed to society in various fields. He naturally chose his sister, Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar for the first award. She was asked who she would like to receive the award from, and was given a list of three names, the former President of India, Dr. APJ Kalam, the world renowned cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan. The nightingale didn’t hesitate for a moment and pointed out the name of Mr. Bachchan. The responsibility of arranging the time for the function was given to me. I knew how busy Mr. Bachchan was during those days. I still kept going at my job and chasing him and his secretary Rosie almost every second day.

Even the name of Lata Mangeshkar couldn’t make him find time for her function which was to be held on her 83rd birthday. A month later I received a call and I was thrilled when he agreed and when I told Lataji about it, I could almost hear her singing a new song of happiness. Mr. Bachchan was still fighting with time that day, but I was still surprised on how he kept personally informing me about where he had reached, how he was caught in traffic and how he would finally reach at a particular time. I was waiting and soon there was chaos at the entrance. He had arrived and I was pushed into the background by his strong security men. The speech he made in ‘shudh Hindi’ in praise of Lata made her call him the ‘baadshah of acting and also a baadshah of speeches’.

P.S.: The man has a passion for clocks of all kinds and has all the best wrist watches in the world. It shows or I think it is just a result of his obsession for time.