It’s all quiet inside the Karikala Cholan suite at the ITC Grand Chola, where Abhishek Bachchan has just checked in. The drawing room is grand and elaborate but he prefers to chat in the study, a much simpler, quieter place. He’s in Chennai for an event by the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation, but his mind seems far away. In Pune.
That’s where the actor’s kabaddi team, his latest ‘acquisition’, is busy fighting it out. With film stars buying cricket teams and venturing into other popular sports, Abhishek surprised everyone by buying a kabaddi team. “Why not kabaddi ?” he starts off, explaining the reasons that drew him to the league. “I’m really passionate about sport and when Charu Sharma took me to a match in Mumbai, I was fascinated. It was a small stadium but there were 10, 000 people actively following the game. It intrigued me. The sport has a fantastic heritage, with origins in The Mahabharata . While I was under the impression that it was a north Indian sport, I later understood that the word kabaddi is derived from the Tamil word ‘kai pudi’ (hold the hand). We just narrowly missed having a team from Chennai this year. Hopefully, next year.”
Chennai and Kollywood bring fond memories to the actor, who has worked extensively here. Abhishek is a big fan of Vikram, whom he calls ‘Kenny sir’, and has loved his work in Samy (“First day first show at Sathyam Cinemas”) and Dhool (“I’ve watched it 17 times.”)
“I love Tamil cinema as it is very unabashed. Though I’ve worked in many films, nothing gives me more pleasure than masala commercial films. That’s what Tamil films do. It’s escapist fare at its best.”
That it might be, but Abhishek’s link with the south primarily brings to mind Mani Ratnam, the filmmaker with whom he worked in Yuva , Guru and Raavan . Working with Mani, he feels, is an ‘emotion.’ “I’ve never seen any director leave his current films and join another filmmaker for a project. That happens only with Mani. Tomorrow, if he calls me and says he has one day’s role for me in a film, I’ll be on the next flight to Chennai.”
Not many know that he was supposed to star in the Tamil version of Raavan , titled Raavanan too. “Mani sir had this wonderful idea of me playing Ram in Raavanan , with Vikram essaying the role that I did in the Hindi version. I don’t question him. But then I went back to him and explained that it’d be difficult, because I was doing the lead role in Hindi anyway. The handicap I have is that I don’t know the language — Aishwarya is at least comfortable with it — and so, I bowed out of it at that time,” he reveals.
He describes his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who started off her career with Iruvar in Tamil, as ‘one of his bouncing boards.’ “I discuss my work with her all the time,” he says. So, with four actors in the house, is dinner-table conversation all about cinema? “Well, there’s a rule in my house, even when I was a kid, that you can’t talk work at dinner. We discuss various things, including politics, as a family. But now, with four actors, talk about cinema does creep in. But, it’s more creative talk. We tend to break down the films we’ve seen,” he states.
On the personal front, there’s Aaradhya, or Beti B as the nation fondly calls her, dominating his life now. So, has fatherhood changed him? “Yes, it has. It gives you a reason for anything you do. Being actors, you do what creatively draws you. But today, I think of my daughter…I won’t do a film that I can’t show her tomorrow. That might sound wrong to a lot of actors but that’s just me. I’m not very comfortable with physicality on screen. Even 30 years down the line, I don’t want her to see any of my films and say, ‘What’s my dad doing there?’”
Currently, he’s doing a key role in Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year , the trailer of which releases today, and a few other projects. But, Abhishek would love to do a straight Tamil film someday. “I can speak beyond the usual ‘vanakkam’ now, because I have been here quite a lot of times. And, I can sing ‘Aruva Meesai’, the song in Dhool , by heart!”
