Abhishek Bachchan made his foray into the entertainment industry with the 2000 film ‘Refugee’. However, before bagging director JP Dutta’s project, it wasn’t easy for Abhishek, who is legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan’s son, to be launched in films.
In a recent interview, Abhishek Bachchan recalled the tough times and mentioned that nobody wanted to take on the responsibility of launching Amitabh Bachchan’s son. He also revealed that before his acting debut, the Bachchans were going through a rough time, and that’s when he had returned to India from college in the United States in order to be with his father.
“There was a lot of chatter, excitement about me joining (the film industry). Not because of me, but because of the kid I was. But contrary to that, people were not interested in working with me. I think I met all the directors I could have met, and they all very respectfully declined saying, ‘We don’t want the responsibility of watching you,'” Abhishek said during a recent roundtable conversation.
He further talked about how one day his father Amitabh Bachchan invited him to join him at the Filmfare awards, and that is where his life changed. Abhishek said during the Galatta Plus roundtable featuring Hindi actors that he did not have any formal clothes to wear for the occasion, and they could not afford it as well. Also, he thought it would be prudent to show up in jeans and a T-shirt.
“Filmfare, 20 years ago, you planned months in advance about what you’d wear. And nobody was giving away free clothes in those days, you’d have to buy them yourself. You’d make sure you weren’t shooting that evening, the entire industry would show up, even if they weren’t nominated. It was an occasion. But then, I was like, ‘What to wear?’ It sounds weird to (say it now) but I didn’t have that many clothes, we couldn’t afford to… We were going through a rough time, and trying to be as frugal as we could be,” Abhishek said.
He added, “So, the sherwani that was made for my sister’s wedding a couple of years earlier, I wore that and went.”
Abhishek then recalled how during the same award show, JP Dutta won the Best Director award for ‘Border’, and spotted Abhishek. It was then that he asked Abhishek to meet him and he offered him ‘Refugee’, changing the course of his life entirely.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Abhishek was last seen in R Balki’s ‘Ghoomer’.
