Abhishek Bachchan: While Chintu uncle is spontaneous, my dad is a believer in rehearsals

Abhishek Bachchan is bright, charming, well- behaved but naughty. And while he is his father, the one and only Amitabh Bachchan’s biggest fan, he has grown up watching and admiring Rishi Kapoor. In a brief conversation with him, while shooting Bhushan Kumar’s family entertainer All Is Well at Filmcity, in which he is playing Rishi Kapoor’s son, we spoke to him about the experience of working with the legend Rishi Kapoor who he has grown up watching and how different he is as an actor viz a viz his father.Excerpts:
Since your childhood, you have seen your father work with Rishi Kapoor so many times. How does it feel for you to now work with him yourself?
It’s superb. You have to still remind yourself and wake up as it’s like a dream. Chintu uncle has been one of my favourites since I was a kid. For me, it was always dad and Chintu uncle. I interacted with him a fair amount during Ajooba that was being made by Shashi uncle (Shashi Kapoor). I have always been a huge fan of his so wherever he would be shooting with dad, I would show up on the set and sit with him. He would have so many stories to tell and was great fun to be with. And then, as an actor it was a dream to work with him and I first got the chance in Delhi 6 but when Umesh Shukla told me that he wanted to approach Chintu uncle for All Is Well, I was very excited as this film is only about the two of us throughout. It’s a film about repartee, about relationships and it’s a father-son film. It’s been too much fun working with him.
You have done films with both your father and now with Rishiji. How different was the experience?
It’s completely different as they are very different actors. Their approaches are very unique to themselves. You don’t just become an Amitabh Bachchan or Rishi Kapoor just like that. Chintu uncle is very spontaneous as a performer. He is very unpredictable as he will always surprise you by doing something so different and refreshing. He is very clear as an actor. Even as a human being he is very clear. It’s so nice to meet someone like that as we all strive to be like that, to know ourselves so well, know our mind so well and be definitive about your decisions. I admire the amount of clarity of thought that he has. He is not afraid to voice his opinion. If you can persuade him otherwise, he is willing to try it and be gracious enough to accept it. Legends do that, they have the ability to adapt and not stand on ego. Pa with me, obviously with him being a father, I am presuming that it is difficult for him to switch off as a father, so you want to be protective, you want to guide and you’d want to help. With Chintu uncle the relationship is different as by the grace of God, he treats me as a co-star. He has seen me born, seen me as a kid, seen me as a young actor and now we are working together but he treats me like a buddy. He likes and encourages that. He is not someone who likes to stand up in ceremony and say, I am your senior who has worked with your father and so you must treat me in a particular way. There is an air of informality with him. With my father, although I am very casual with him, there is a line that I would never cross. With Pa, when he is acting with me, the parental instinct kicks off and I presume he is looking out more for me in the shot than for himself. Also, while Chintu uncle is very spontaneous, my father is someone who has taught me that the more rehearsals you do, the better your performances are going to get. I remember we were doing a scene in Bunty Aur Babli, a scene where we are both getting drunk in a bar just before the Kajra Re song. My father just encouraged me to rehearse and rehearse and carry on rehearsing. My dad believes in rehearsing. He has the amazing ability to work out the most minutest details in his performance. Being an admirer of his work, being his son and having done many films with him, I can tell you when you see him perform and even when he blinks, he has thought of it and, he has planned it. He is that finite a performer. There is not one movement that he has not planned and not done for a reason. That’s how detailed an actor he is.
READ: Abhishek Bachchan: Lesser known facts
So are you more spontaneous or practised?
I am a spontaneous actor trying to be detailed. I am more like my mother as a performer. My mother is someone who will hear a scene, go through it and just see what comes out naturally. Her performances and approach are far more instinctual. My father would want to sit down and work out every nuance. They are completely different styles of acting and they are both immensely difficult to master. And they both have done that brilliantly. That is also true of Chintu uncle. So, I would say that I am an attempting spontaneous actor wanting to be very detailed and am somewhere between both my parents.
It’s legendary to be scolded by a Rishi Kapoor on set. Has he ever scolded you?
No he hasn’t. He does not play the uncle angle with me. Also, at some level maybe I am doing something right so he doesn’t need to scold me, but I would love for him to scold me and correct me. How wonderful it would be to be taught and corrected by Chintu uncle.
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