An episode to remember

“Once, when I had gone to a theatre to see how my film was doing, a lady came out and slapped me. She did not like the film.

Thankfully, I’m able to laugh about it today but at that point, it was not a very good feeling,” Bachchan said addressing the audience at a youth summit in Chennai.

Abhishek, son of Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, said the woman told him, “Stop. You are embarrassing your family and ruining your father’s name.”

“It wasn’t the slap that hurt, but the words, you know. Late in the night, I awoke my father (Amitabh Bachchan) and said I have made a mistake and nobody wants to see me there. He said, ‘If people don’t want you, directors will not be making films with you. Nobody forced the directors’ (sic).”

Bachchan said an actor had to believe in himself to make it big. He even said he was interested in acting in a Tamil film more than a Hollywood film. On being asked which of the characters he played was close to him in reality, Abhishek said, “It is this character Raj from a film called Kuch Na Kaho.”

When asked how Bollywood films were doing compared to world cinema, he said Indian movies were doing well. “The greatest testimony of how important India is in the film market is Tom Cruise coming to Mumbai for the premiere of his film, before its release,” he said.