Window To His Soul: Abhishek Bachchan

For the first time, I stood on the other side as Abhishek Bachchan spoke, and let one into a part of his persona. Yes, it was personal, by his book. And for me, it was an aspect one had never considered. I look at Abhishek with new eyes. Man is the sum total of all his experiences upto the present moment. And Abhishek has culled his into a persona of deep resonance. I look at him, with almost pride and joy, as I sit back and listen to this extremely lucid and articulate young actor, a man on the journey through his thoughts. And yes, we do like him. Very much.

- Saguna Sundaram

Considering the kind of films that are garnering critical acclaim today, as well as commercial success, as opposed to hard-core formula commercial films, there were in the past, barely a few directors who were known to make middle-of-the-road cinema. Today the number of commercial directors is on the wane and smaller films are doing great. You tend to lean on the side of the commercial.

I disagree with you. As far as I am concerned, there are two kinds of films; good films and bad films. I arrive at this very easily because of one fact, that we work in a commercial medium. I am not getting into what is creativity and what is artistic, that is a different debate altogether. I don’t think I have the liberty to indulge in that because I work in a commercial medium. The minute I expect my audience to go purchase a ticket to watch a film of mine, I owe them something. I owe them what we call paisa vasooli. If they don’t get that, they don’t like the film anymore, the film doesn’t do well, and it’s a flop. It’s very simple. We can debate the artistic side of it till kingdom come, but I think it is very important to define the parameters in which we make films. I am very clear that a successful film is a good film and vice-versa, but you don’t decide what is a good or bad film. Your audience decides, because they are the ones you are making the film for. If we talking about artistry, then everybody has their own standards, wishes and wants. If you are expecting a producer to put money in a film, and he expects the distributor to put money from their end, and you expect the audience to buy the ticket, it is a commercial deal.