Abhishek Bachchan turns 45: When the star got candid with Gulf News about nepotism

Bollywood Abhishek Bachchan celebrates his 45th birthday on February 5. The son of Indian icons Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan has played numerous roles over his over 20-year career, and has overcome hurdles to carve his own unique space in the industry.

“Today when I look back at my 20 years and 66 films I have made so far, I go: ‘Oh, my God! I wish I would have thought that much into the future back then knowing that 20 years later I will think about the mass of work that I have done… Be more aware as it’s my history,” Bachchan told Gulf News in an interview in 2020.

The actor made his debut in the 2000 movie ‘Refugee’ opposite Kareena Kapoor and went on to have a career of hits and flops in equal measure. Here’s a look at some of the top quotes from the star’s interviews with Gulf News over the years.

“The basic message is that no matter what choice you make in life, about love or however you want to make that choice, you shouldn’t feel guilty about making it. There shouldn’t be any pressure either from your family or your society. The heart should get to do what the heart wants to do,” he said while talking about his 2018 romance ‘Manmarziyaan’.

In it, he plays a man who gets involved in a love triangle. The hit movie also starred Taapsee Pannu and Vicky Kaushal. Talking about his character, he said: “Robbie’s character is calm and introverted. The idea was to show the extremes and explore who would she go with and why.”

Prior to ‘Manmarziyaan’, Bachchan hadn’t acted in a movie for two years. But the actor, who has been married to former Miss World and actress Aishwarya Rai since 2007, didn’t shy away from addressing this career break. “It was a self-imposed sabbatical. I wanted to take a step back and revalue, reassess, recalibrate. But I was working every day and working on my sporting ventures and investment portfolios,” he said.

Talking about nepotism, Bachchan said that being a star kid doesn’t always translate to success in Bollywood. “Everybody has an uphill task and hurdles that they have to surpass. Everybody has to go and figure out their own problems,” he said. “I have had my fair share of my films not doing well and being thrown out of films because I wasn’t a bankable actor. I had my share of struggles. You should not look down upon anybody who has struggled in whatever way. Industry kids have it easy to start with and we appreciate that. Nobody takes that for granted.”

After decades of being on the big screen, Bachchan made his web series debut with the thriller ‘Breathe: Into The Shadows’. “In a web series, even just physically keeping up with the characters can be very difficult, but very enjoyable too … The material that you get makes up for everything though … It’s scary because you understand that this is a medium where a viewer will immediately flip if two scenes are slow … They just switch,” he said about the experience.

The star has been open to the changes in the industry that have been brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Talking about his Netflix movie ‘Ludo’, he said: “‘Ludo’ was intended for a theatrical release, but obviously now times are different and we are happy that Netflix decided to pick up the film... it’s wonderful that people continue to tell new stories and these platforms are allowing story tellers and content creators to reach a larger audience. They are now daring to be more audacious in their story telling.”