Thursday, April 19, 2012

Dinesh Kamath's old article on Abhishek Bachchan that was published in Newsband



Abhishek Bachchan is the son of a superstar but yet he has come into his own in every single way. It is true that he had a rough start in Bollywood. But today he is one of the most compelling performers of B-town. He enjoys the privilege of having married one of India's most beautiful women, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Both Abhishek and Aishwarya form a great pair on big screen. The films Sarkar Raj and Guru prove my point. Now Abhishek is all set to come on silver screen with Ash in a riveting Mani Ratnam film Raavan, in which he plays the title role. Abhishek realized early in his career that romantic roles were not his cup of tea. He preferred to play roles which were of different types and which didn't suit those Bollywood heroes who specialized in playing romantic characters. When he didn't click in films like Dostana and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, he realized that his burly physique and unconventional looks were not meant for romantic roles and he made the right decision to exploit his look in other roles.
Today I'll write about Abhishek's entire film career in short. Abhishek made his debut with the film Refugee. It was not so good a start for him. His films like Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya and Kuch Na Kaho were total flops. His critics had written him off as a a non-actor. But it was Mani Ratnam who discovered the latent talent of Abhishek and he cast him as an uneducated small town gangster in Yuva. This film clicked in a big way and gave Abhishek a new lease of life. Filmfare conferred on him the Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Yuva. After that, Abhishek came up with another superlative performance. This time he played a super cop in Dhoom and its sequel. He played a sharp and alert characters who most of the time uttered one-liners which would have the audience in splits. Both Dhoom and Dhoom 2 were big hits. Then he became a part of the film in which he had to portray for one minute an unsophisticated small-town lad and next moment a slick con-man. The film was Bunty Aur Babli in which he was paired with bubbly Rani Mukherji. The two shared great chemistry with each other. After that Abhishek was offered a challenging role in Sarkar. He had to play son to real-life father Amitabh Bachchan. In this movie he had to portray a character who doesn't hesitate to murder his own brother to get to the top. Sarkar fetched him his second award as Best Supporting Actor. His performance in the Sarkar's sequel too was greatly appreciated. Abhishek next played a common thief in Bluffmaster. In this film he was paired with sexy Priyanka Chopra. This film made his female fan following go up considerably. The film also fetched him a role in the film Dum Maro Dum which is directed by Rohan Sippy and which is yet to be released. After that Abhishek got a chance to play one of the most memorable roles of his lifetime. This role was offered to him by Mani Ratnam. The film was Guru. Abhishek won the IIFA award for Best Actor in a leading role for this film. Then came the film Paa in which Abhishek gave a terrific performance although it was his father, Amitabh, who stole the thunder. Abhishek's performance in Paa was a mature one and he played convincingly a young boyfriend who is impulsive and callous but who later realizes his mistake and tries hard to make amends. Paa was a landmark film for Abhishek. Thus Abhishek's journey in the film industry was the one with many ups and downs, but today he has made his position stable in the industry since he has understood his own potential as an actor.
Abhishek also has a penchant for soccer as well as music. He deeply loves life and movies. He loves making movies which he would personally like to watch. He believes that movies are not always about money but it's about passion and story that unfolds on the 70 mm. Abhishek very well knows how to deal with both victories and losses in the game of film acting. His film to hit screens this year is the much talked about Raavan – a movie which has blurred the lines between good and evil because what one person thinks is right might be wrong to another fellow. The movie tries to tell that it is circumstances which define our actions. That's the reason why in Raavan, there is no defined protagonist or antagonist. Everyone is grey.
In his next film Dum Maro Dum, which is directed by Rohan Sippy, Abhishek plays a cop. He started shooting for the film after he finished Raavan.
The media finds both Abhishek and Aishwarya an attractive pair owing to which the films in which they are paired don't fail to benefit by their presence. Both are inspired creatively. When the two are on the sets, they treat each other as co-stars and not as spouses. .
Apart from being busy shooting for films and endorsements, Abhishek finds time to connect online. With a huge number of followers, Abhishek is one of the most popular B-Town stars on social networking sites. Abhishek believes that the stars of today have found a perfect medium to connect directly with fans. According to him, the image of star is that of a buddy with whom one can share thoughts and feelings.
Abhishek handles nasty comments and criticism from fans very constructively. He believes that stars cannot live in their ivory towers forever since sometimes they have to hear what they fear.
Abhishek describes his journey of highs and lows in the film industry as a fulfilling experience. He feels happy about the fact that he has broken the mould in all his movies and is hungry for more. He'll be completing 10 years in the industry with Raavan. He has learnt a lot in these years. It was a great journey for him and it makes him happy and proud that he is the part of this industry. Failures have played an important role in his growth. The low phase taught him a lot. He believes that there is no success without failure. Failures kept him grounded and made him appreciate things. Abhishek had given a string of flops before Dhoom happened to him. After Dhoom, Abhishek played all kinds of roles in box office successes like Yuva, Bunty Aur Bubly, Bluffmaster, Dostana, Delhi-6 and Paa among others.
Raavan is the film which features Aishwarya Rai as a dance teacher who is happily married to a cop, played by Tamil superstar Vikram, and shows how Abhishek's character Beera spoils that tranquility in their lives.
For Abhishek, it's very exciting to get roles where he can push himself and challenge himself to play a character he has not attempted before. He is happy that he is doing different roles. He would be really bored if he had to do the same thing every day. Ratnam had given Abhishek two of his memorable roles in Yuva and Guru and now Raavan is their third outing together. Let's wait and see whether Raavan too turns out to be a huge success. Good luck, Abhishek!

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