“One line of Game caught my fancy” – Abhishek Bachchan

By Devansh Patel -

March 19, 2011 - 10:46 AM IST

Click above for more movie stills

The actor is in an upbeat mood in Filmistan Studios in Goregaon. His film Game, a twisted thriller, is just a few days away from the big screen release. Add to that, this is the same Studio where he shot his first scene with his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan twelve years ago when they were mere acquaintances. That explains why the actor greets me in his vanity van with a special chai ordered for me on the sets of Abbas Mustan's Players being shot in the same studio. He sits tall and with his brewed coffee arriving just in time in his extremely special 'Chelsea' mug, you can make out that Abhishek Bachchan the man likes to hold things close to his heart, be it his first shot with wife at Filmistan, his forthcoming film Game or his 'Chelsea' coffee mug. Where's my 'Liverpool' mug? Anyway...he doesn't talk much but he talks precise. His words are sharp and his answers make absolute sense. He said something that is still engraved in my head, as I write this interview, "Failures shake your confidence, shake your belief but it won't shake your love and passion for what you do." But the strange thing about Abhi's selective reticence is that it's accompanied by a broad smile, as if to say he knows what game he's being asked to play, and he's just not interested. For a change, he has no option today but to play the 'Game' with me. UK's Harrow Observer columnist and Bollywood Hungama's London correspondent is all geared up as he throws the ball of questions in the Chelsea half. Its kick off time Jr! First half begins of this two part special only on Bollywood Hungama.

"As a kid, my favourite thriller movie was Clue based on the game Cluedo"
I think saying that we've changed the rules of the game is presumptuous. I'd like to believe we've brought back the genre which I really love. I've told you this before but when I was a kid, I've loved Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes T.V. shows and movies like Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express. When I was a kid, my favourite thriller movie was Clue based on the board game Cluedo. I was very keen to do something like that and I don't think we've been making such films in our industry.

“One line of Game caught my fancy” – Abhishek Bachchan

"One line of Game caught my fancy"
When the script of Game came, it was essentially a one line that caught my fancy. The pitch was four absolute strangers who are called on an island by one stranger and all are linked in one particular way. That night, there is a murder and there are four suspects. Such stories have been made before but yet they are different from each other in its suspense. I love to be a part of such a genre and that's why I did Game.

"Abhinay working with Farhan, Ritesh and Aamir is a testament to his enormous talent"
Abhinay Deo's first film with Farhan and Riteish's Excel Entertainment and his second with Aamir Khan Productions Delhi Belly is a testament to his enormous talent. I wanted to work with Abhinay for very long. I haven't worked with him in ad-films knowing that a lot of my friends have briefed me about him from the advertising world. Ritesh spoke to me and said that Game was Abhinay's film and it just happened and here I am working with him. Our parents have worked together. His father and mother have worked in many films with my father, one of them being Anand.

"Abhinay's maximum focus was on the screenplay"
Abhinay has a great story telling ability. I was pleasantly surprised that his maximum focus was on the screenplay and the performances. There were times when he was willing to compromise the visual aesthetics of the shot for the emotion of the shot which is so important. His technique is brilliant.

"It is tough to cope with failure but success and failure are almost balanced"
In my experience, you could've gone through the lowest phase of your career and it takes one hit for everything to turn around and you could've given eight super hits in a row, which I did, and takes one flop to go all down again. You success and failure are almost balanced. Having said that, it's tough to cope with your failures. It's very tough. But if there is belief in your audience that they want to see you again, then you get another film. If you get another film, you try double hard to make it work.

Watch this space for Part 2 of AB Jr's interview