‘Creativity’s not a 9 to 5 job’

Amitabh Bachchan, at 66 today, is no lion in winter.
I met him two days ago on the sets of Teen Patti in an old, dilapidated mill at Worli. And though he was rather shabbily dressed (���I���m pretending to be somebody else���) in blue chequered lungi, loose grey shirt, angavastram and brown open sandals, he never looked better.
Or fitter. This despite shooting for hours in hot and stuffy conditions under the lights. He���d been at it since 2. And it was 9 now. Younger actors on the sets, like Mahesh Manjrekar and Mahadevan from the South, perspired freely. Bachchan, grey eyes shining behind rimless glasses, said coolly, ���It���s hot, but that���s good, I sweat a lot. It helps to keep my weight down. No need to go to the gym.���
There is going to be no birthday celebration, it is not yet a year since he lost his mother; also ��� but for the landmark 50th and 60th years ��� Bachchan has never been a party-party sort of person. ���I won���t be working, I will be at home with the family, but I will meet whoever comes to wish me,��� he announced. That he is taking a break today is big. He���s got four or five films on hand. And plans to stage his Unforgettable Tour all over India. ���Teen Patti has just started,��� Bachchan said, ���then there���s Shoebite on the floor, that���s the working title, Alladin is over ��� there���s one song left, and I���ve two or three projects on the anvil, like Sanjay Leela Bhansali���s Chenab Gandhi, Pritish Nandy���s film... I don���t know the title, and I���m committed to do one for Ravi Chopra, plus Raykesh Mehra���s next. And there���s Kunal, Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi���s film.���
Happily for him, all these films don���t run together. Though Bachchan belongs to an era where actors worked on 10 to 12 films at a time. ���Sometimes three on the same day,��� he admitted. ���Now the industry is more organised, exclusive time is given to one project ��� from start to finish. The younger generation actors are all working on single films. It���s a healthy trend, especially for the producer who does not have to coerce the actor to work to a professional schedule and can now plan his release and the publicity design of his project well in advance.���
As for the concerts, after touring 12 cities in four countries over two months, zig-zagging across India over weekends will be a piece of cake for Bachchan. Not the live performances, though. ���They���re a nightmare,��� he said, ���because this is not like cinema, where if you make an error there���s always opportunity to improve. But the roar of the live audience is compelling, it���s a rush of adrenaline, I enjoy that.���
What drives him to do all this at his age, I asked. ���It���s really the joy of doing something new,��� Bachchan replied. ���Creativity is not a 9 to 5 job, it comes from enthusiasm. The day I���m not enthused to create comething novel, I���ll stop working, because then I would have become mechanical. I enjoy being alive, I look for a new struggle, a new experience every day. An artiste has no right to say he is satisfied, that���s being defeatist, I hope I���m never satisfied. I want to keep getting challenged every day.��� But were there any challenges left for him? ���Yes,��� replied Bachchan with deadpan expression, ���I wish I could learn some foreign language and play a musical instrument. I���m desperate and am going to do this pretty soon. Music is such good company. And I���d like to learn French and then go to Paris. Now I know one or two words. That���s not sufficient!���
From Paris, I brought him to Hollywood, where talks are reportedly on to get Bachchan to sign the dotted line and do a film. ���I���ve not signed,��� he revealed, ���though I���m close to it.��� Would he consider the script first or the Hollywood co-stars when the time came? ���The script... and, I hope, the co-stars will come along,��� Bachchan replied. Was he, well, kind of hoping to act with anyone, did he have favourite actors in Hollywood? ���I have no favourites,��� he said, ���though, yes, I���d like to work with Meryl Streep, Al Pacino...��� Meryl Streep!
Had he seen the great actress in her new film Mamma Mia? ���Yes, but I thought it was an okay film. I was not that excited about it. The stage version is better. It���s a novelty for western audiences to see their stars singing and dancing. But I felt they were awkward. We could have done it better. It���s a Hindi film story.��� In which case, I asked, which role would he have liked to play. And Amitabh Bachchan said, ���Pierce Brosnan���s!���