Still the Shahenshah

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br />He’s still the epitome of anger. Simmering with emotion under his newly donned khakees; the re-invented persona of his ‘Zanjeer’ days. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Amitabh Bachchan </span>is also the busiest star in Bollywood. With one film slated for release almost every week, the magic of the Big B remains strong as ever.India’s greatest entertainer tells <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Omar Qureshi </span>that he would still be up to chasing Aishwarya Rai around trees: <br /><br /><img align="left" src="/photo/713591.cms" alt="/photo/713591.cms" border="0" /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">To quote Shah Rukh Khan, at age 62, you remain the world’s greatest star. What’s the magic recipe?</span><br /><br />I attribute this comment to a large dose of generosity on Shah Rukh Khan’s part. He’s a great actor himself and a fine individual who is undoubtedly doing very well for himself. The film business is largely dependent on the failure and success of your films, so our individual performances are guided by box office returns. If you have success, it reflects on your ratings and they shoot up. I guess that’s how the system works. I am very humbled by Shah Rukh Khan’s expression.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Farah Khan, in her directorial debut, </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Main Hoon Naa</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">, chose to pay tribute to a genre made famous by you.</span><br /><br />Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the film yet. But I will, hopefully, see it in a couple of days. The genre being referred to were not so much my films; they were films by Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, Ramesh Sippy and today’s generation being able to recognise that kind of cinema, being able to pay a tribute to it, and above it all, draw inspiration from it. I think somewhere in their minds that kind of cinema has left a lasting impression in their minds, and it’s wonderful to see that they are being able to accept and add a few more feathers to it.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Dev is</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""> set against the backdrop of Mumbai riots. Wouldn’t that seem dated in today’s context?</span><br /><br />I don’t think it’s been based on a particular incident. Unfortunately, riots keep happening with so much regularity that you cannot pinpoint the incident on which the film is based. It is sad for the country, for its citizens and our communities. It’s hard reality and we can’t escape it. Yes, there are incidents of rioting and the story of Dev is built around it, but to say that it is particularly based on one riot would be erroneous. It’s better to say that it is based on incidents that keep happening in regularity.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Govind Nihalani has been part of the art house cinema crowd and Amitabh the epitome of commercial cinema. Where do the twain meet?</span><br /><br />I think, in my earlier years, I was associated with so much of commercial cinema. At that time there was a sense of worry and concern about the box office, not so much for yourself but for other people — the directors, producers, distributors, exhibitors and financiers — who invest so much of money with the hope that it is going to be a commercially viable venture. If I were to do something that is not in the mould of escapist cinema, I had to be overtly cautious and I really admire those actors who have had a healthy mix of both. I was not such an individual, but now I am, also because the success and failure of the film at the box office does not depend on me anymore. I am not usually the leading man of the film; therefore, I have the opportunity to play different kinds of roles. Hence, Govind Nihalani and Dev.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">If you were 20-something today, which is the one woman you would like to romance around trees right away?</span><br /><br />Aishwarya Rai... without a doubt!<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Ram Gopal’s </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Sarkar</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">, with you, has acquired the remake rights of the original </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Godfather</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">. But how true will it be to the masterpiece?</span><br /><br />I don’t know, I haven’t heard the script yet but it’s being developed. Ram Gopal Verma and I have spent some time talking about the film, he is sure about one thing — that he will unabashedly follow the original Godfather, of course, with the circumstances of the situations being different. But I don’t think he wants to make any changes as far as the structure of the story is concerned. I will be very keen and interested to see how he manages that because that’s really what’s going to make the film interesting. Abhishek is working with him in Naach and he’s very excited about the way Ramu works and I hope to experience the same amount of thrill as my son.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">What about the Vidhu Vinod Chopra film you’ve been slated to do for a while now?</span><br /><br />Every year, for the past 30 years, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and I come together and say we have to do a film. From the day he passed out from the Film Institute in Pune, he genuinely comes and sits with me, and we genuinely decide to do a film. But we genuinely never do it. I hope this time around it is factual and I hope that he will work with me. I think he is one of the finest makers that we have, he’s a great person, great company, a man with wonderful ideas and very passionate about his work. I am equally passionate about working with him.</div> </div>