Ranbir Kapoor credits Amitabh Bachchan with inventing ‘aura farming’ on KBC: ‘It all started with him’

Ranbir Kapoor has shared screen space with some of Hindi cinema’s biggest names, but there are two men whose gaze he still can’t meet. On Kaun Banega Crorepati, sitting across from host Amitabh Bachchan, the actor revealed that the list begins with his late father and ends with the man in front of him. “I want to say that only two people have entered my life whom I cannot look in the eye while speaking. One was my father, and the other is you.”

The confession caught Bachchan off guard. “What are you saying?” he asked. Ranbir, who was on the show with Sai Pallavi and Ravi Dubey to promote Ramayana, went on to explain that the awe dates back to his childhood, when he visited the set of Ajooba, the 1991 film that brought Rishi Kapoor and Bachchan together.

“I have grown up in front of you but during my childhood, when I came on the shooting of Ajooba film; you had even posted that photo on your social media,” Ranbir said. What stayed with him from those early encounters was the sheer force of Bachchan’s presence, and he argued the veteran was doing something long before Gen Z gave it a name. “I remember seeing this tall man. What the Gen Z calls ‘aura farming’ today, it all started with him.” Bachchan responded by folding his hands in thanks, as Ranbir added, “Whenever he entered the room, it felt like someone has just walked in with a radiating presence.”

Ranbir revealed that he had long pictured himself and Alia through the lens of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan. “One more thing, I always have this image in my mind that I am tall like Amitabh Bachchan and Alia is a bit short like Jaya aunty (Bachchan), so the height difference will also look good in photos. So, I always used to think that too.”

Ramayana’s road to Diwali

The appearance comes days after Ramayana held its world premiere in Los Angeles. Early reactions likened its scale to The Lord of the Rings. Its visuals, score and performances drew praise, though some viewers felt the spectacle occasionally came at the cost of emotional weight.

The film also stars Yash as Ravana, Sunny Deol as Hanuman and Rakul Preet Singh as Surpanakha. It opens in theatres on November 5, in time for Diwali.