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It was an unusual favour to ask of a superstar. Amitabh Bachchan had a spring in his step, he was in a chatty, bubbly mood. In jeans and hooded jacket (the air-conditioning had turned the place into a refrigerator without icicles), beard neatly trimmed, smiling easily and laughing quite a bit, he sipped his tea sitting upright (the man never slouches), with a Husain watching over us. This is Amitabh Bachchan’s private den in Janak, the third official Bachchan property in Juhu. The rain outside and the green plants that danced on an extended ledge gave the room a hill station feel. The actor looked relaxed but sat up alert when I asked, “If my car doesn’t start when I’m leaving, would you have someone push and start it for me please?”
It wasn’t the normal question you’d ask a star of his stature. It took Amitabh a second before he asked, “Are you driving yourself?” Yes, with a nod. That was it. The celebrity I’d come to interview transformed into a caring gentleman. He spoke to his staff over the intercom and gave clear instructions to his personal driver, Rakesh, to check the starter and make sure it doesn’t act up. “Don’t worry about it,” he said to me reassuringly. “If there’s a problem, we’ll have you dropped home. The car will also be sent to your place. Don’t worry about a thing.”
Now I know how Aishwarya Rai feels when this man takes over her problems. He has been thundering in recent interviews (as he did with me as well), “People have called her a manglik and a curse. She’s not just my daughter-in-law, she’s my daughter, my family. Forget who she is, forget who we are. Is it ethical to talk like this about any young girl who is wanting to settle down in life, get married and start her own home? I think it’s time to tell people to lay off!”
He has sent precisely that message across all month — along with the “we’ve seen no horoscope, there’s been no marriage to a tree” statements. He has been forceful and unequivocal, repeating himself ad nauseum until he’d got it off his chest.
But I wanted to know something else. Would he endorse Uttar Pradesh today under the new Mayavati government?
He promptly returned, “Let the UP government use the campaign I did, it’s still valid.”
But you did it for a particular government.
“No, no, I’ve done it for the state, let me be very clear about this. I’ve been endorsing all kinds of products, why wouldn’t I want to do it for my own state? Seven generations of my family have lived there. What you saw — and what became a controversy — is just a portion of what I did. Why don’t people ask for all the documents, all those ads, all those clips, all those visuals that I did propagating Uttar Pradesh to the world?
“There was a controversy that this is a crime-ridden state. That would have sent investors scurrying back. In order to contradict that, we asked for a report from the home ministry which is the central government, not the UP government. I saw the document myself, it’s a document that had been presented in Parliament, so obviously it cannot be questioned. I merely quoted from the document where it clearly said that UP was 27th in the (crime) ratings. In the ad, I haven’t said there is no crime in UP. I have merely said, Uttar Pradesh mein jurm kum hai, anya rajya ke muqable mein, yahan kam hai. And that’s valid even today.”
So, if any government in UP asked you to endorse the state, would you?
“Most certainly. I do so many things for the state and for the country, whether it is for polio or breast feeding or son et lumiere… I’ve done the Golconda Fort, I’ve done the Gwalior Fort, I’ve done the Fort in Tirupati, I’ve done Khajuraho. The Rajasthan government has just asked me to do the Amber Palace, they’re doing a son-et-lumiere. I haven’t charged a single penny for any of this, I have given my time because I feel it’s our national heritage. And I as a citizen need to do it.
“What I’m saying is, just because there’s a change in the government doesn’t mean there’s a change in the perception of the crime (situation in UP). In fact it would be beneficial for them to use it even now. Why don’t they use it? I haven’t said anything that is deliberately pro a particular government. I’m sure the present government would be interested to know that no, they’re not the most crime-filled state in the land!”
So, the ball’s in Mayavati’s court now.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International