'With time, you have to change'

I can still do it,” says megastar Amitabh Bachchan on playing an 'angry young man' that pitch-forked him to stardom in the 70s.

“With time, you have to change. You don’t have the same temperament that you had when you were in school or college. And I guess the roles that come your way are also like this. That is not to say that it is lost. If there is anger to be depicted in a film, I can still do it. It depends on characterisation, what the director or the story demands from you,” said Bachchan.  

The 71-year-old has had a varied and impressive career in films, playing roles of a father seeking justice for son in Viruddh, teacher of a blind-deaf-mute girl in 'Black', a self-obsessed chef in Cheeni Kum, a man in love with a much younger girl in Nishabd or a child suffering from progeria in Paa.  

Bachchan feels fortunate to be considered more than just a serviceable senior character actor and be given the opportunity to experiment.

 “I think as you age, you can’t be playing the romantic hero. There obviously are more character-driven roles. When you are reaching 72, you automatically go to certain regions in terms of characters in films. But I am just very fortunate that all kinds of roles are coming my way,” he said.

With a career spanning more than four decades and having starred in over 180 films, the National award-winning actor says even now he does not feel burdened with work and gets up every morning, all rejuvenated and excited to go on to the sets.

“I enjoy the fact that I have to get up and go to work. In fact, there are days, when it is an off or a holiday and I wonder what to do. I don’t know whether to spend time with the family, play games, write, read, watch TV, there are so many scripts that one has to read. Sometimes it is a boon to be occupied and I am quite happy to do that,” Bachchan said. 

The actor’s last film Satyagraha in which he played a man striving to bring change in the system and upcoming film Bhoothnath Returns both have political undertones.  

But he says it was not intentional to do politically charged films back-to-back.

“It is purely co-incidental. Prakash Jha (director of Satyagraha) has always made very topical films and he has been consistently making films of that genre.

This (Bhoothnath Returns) is more of a satire, it has got lots of humour and there are kids in it. It does have a serious comment about the state of the nation but in a humourous manner,” he said. 

The film directed by Nitesh Tiwari, will hit theatres this Friday.

In Bhoothnath Returns, a sequel to 2008 film Bhoothnath, Bachchan will reprise the role of the friendly ghost.