If Amitabh Bachchan had refused to do Nishabd, Ram Gopal Varma confesses he would not have made the film.
"Can't one fall in love at 60?" quizzes the Big B, a smile on his enigmatic face, the crease lines and the wrinkles still making him more lovable than ever. Before you bring out that hanky, do read on.
It's a strong PR exercise. Bachchan is promoting Ram Gopal Varma's Nishabd where his character is shown being infatuated by a young girl old enough to be his daughter. So he does not exactly mean what he says. Or asks. Or does he?
"The film is not about sex and sexuality," says Bachchan. "It is about the genuine emotions of a man and the impact of this love on his family. The film deals with the situations that the characters come into and how they deal with it."
Bachchan does admit that Varma's conceptualisation of the idea and his treatment of it is brilliant. It is the strength of each character in the film that drew Bachchan to Nishabd, not just his own role. Talk about how realistic Nishabd is and Bachchan is prepared with his answer even before you complete your question. Citing Nishabd to be an intense love story that looks into the hidden passion in every individual, Bachchan adds that "there is nothing physical about Nishabd."
"The film dwells on the human mind and how it tries to move away from conventional thinking when faced with an untoward situation," says Bachchan.
If Bachchan is at pains to explain his role, Varma is emphatic that if there was no Bachchan, there would have been no Nishabd. "I had given in to the fact that if Bachchan said no to the role, I would not direct the film. I could always launch Jiah in another film. Bachchan's talent, his persona and his ability to underplay a character and make it look human were overwhelmingly in favour of Nishabd being a reality," says Varma.
Bachchan returns the compliment. Calling Varma's film "his most sensitive creation till date," Bachchan clearly endorses his faith in the director. "Ramu has always been open like when he stated The Godfather was an inspiration for Sarkar (which starred Bachchan in the lead). This is obviously in reference to the comparisons between Stanley Kubrick's film 1962 film Lolita and Nishabd.
However, Varma recently stated in an interview with Indian film broadsheet Screen that he was actually inspired by Ayn Rand's biography Passion of Ayn Rand written by Barbara Brandon, a fact that he shared with Bachchan before shooting began for the film. The famed writer was attracted to her ardent disciple Nethnil and she dealt with this by sitting with her husband, Nethnil and his wife Barbara (who later authored Rand's biography) to arrive at a solution.
