Amitabh Bachchan in conversation with Suman De of ABP Ananda. Excerpts...

Five years ago, you had said that even if you go to Calcutta for half a day, you want to go to all the places — Alipore, Chowringhee, Ballygunge — that have some nostalgic value for you. Was the added incentive to do Piku the chance to spend 18 days shooting in Calcutta?
Yes, of course. First of all, I want to thank you and extend my good wishes to the people of Bengal. I spent seven-eight years in Calcutta… my first job was here. Those initial years are very special. Whenever I come to Calcutta, I feel like going to those places. I don’t think there is any place in Calcutta I wouldn’t have stayed for at least a few days. I started from Tollygunge… then Chowringhee… Russell Street… Ballygunge… either in a mess or as someone’s guest. I love revisiting those places.... When I had gone to Calcutta to shoot Do Anjaane (1976), I would sit in the car late at night and revisit the old haunts… bahut achha lagta tha. 

There is a song in Bangla: ‘Ei shohor jaane amaar prothom shob kichhu’. Calcutta is the city where you got your first job, your first salary, first smoke and drink... 
AB: Shob kichhui okhane (smiles). All the restaurants on Park Street… Moulin Rouge… Mocambo… Firpo’s… Flurys…. Waldorf... Sky Room… the Prawn Cocktail there would be very good. 

You remember all that even now?
Yes, one doesn’t forget old things. Those were beautiful days. Now, the city’s changed a little bit… buildings have come up… roads and flyovers.... It takes time to locate my old haunts. But Calcutta hasn’t changed.  Cosmetic changes have happened… but Calcutta’s heart hasn’t changed. The same people, love, passion… if Calcutta accepts you, it gives its life in backing you. That’s a very unique character of the city. They raise you on a pedestal… that’s the spirit of Calcutta.... I always tell my friends whenever they are depressed or sad… ‘Go to Calcutta’. 

So you are saying that Calcutta is a medicine for depression?
Absolutely! One gets so much love there… it just energises you. 

But you must be getting that from all over the world…
No, no (laughs)… it doesn’t happen like that. There’s something special about Calcutta… of course, it’s also because I am Calcutta’s jamaibabu (smiles).... Calcutta always loves creative people. There’s a lot of passion around creative activities… whether it’s a sports ground or a literary festival, plays, drama… such a wide spectrum. 

You should never ask a woman her age and a man his salary, but wasn’t your first salary in Calcutta Rs 300?
Na… 450 (laughs). I used to have 300 in hand only because 150 would go in rent and khana-peena. We had bed and breakfast only in the mess I stayed in. 

When you were shooting Piku, I had told Shoojit (Sircar) that in Calcutta you were like Harun-al-Rashid. At night, you would leave your Mercedes and get into a Santro or Nano and revisit your old haunts. Who did you meet?
(Laughs) All my old friends and colleagues… my old bosses. I always meet them. I visit their homes… Achha lagta hai. No one has changed…. 

Calcutta also means Satyajit Ray and today, May 2, is his birthday…
Yes, Manikda I met several times. Jaya worked with him… her first film (Mahanagar) was with him. I had gone to his home when he was editing Pratidwandi…. The editing process was then manual…. He (Ray) was so sure and precise with what he wanted. He knew exactly where to cut his film and then join it. He made such world-class films editing them manually. Nowadays, everything happens in minutes on a computer.... Manikda’s room… adbhut. Whenever Jaya comes into my room and sees the mess, she asks me: ‘How can you live like this?’ I tell her: ‘Have you seen Manikda’s room?’ Papers, books, magazines… and in the middle of it all, a piano. And he used to play… he would compose…. It was such a messy room… I don’t know how he knew where he had kept what. But what an experience we had. 

You had told us once that he was thinking of a film with you on the Bhopal gas tragedy…
I think we were coming back to India from abroad and were on the same flight and Manikda was so tall and that booming voice: ‘Amitabh… come on!’ (Laughs) He said he wanted to make a film on the Bhopal gas tragedy, but it didn’t happen. Then, he made Shatranj Ke Khilari and he asked me to do a voiceover… but a film with him didn’t happen.  

Calcutta also means food. Along with the love, you must have experienced the food also… 
My eating habits have changed now. But I ate a lot of food back then. 

But Shoojit said you apparently complained that ‘This director is not allowing me to eat!’
There was a scene in Piku where I go to a kachodi shop… that was fun. 

For the film, you cycled freely through the streets of Calcutta. That’s not something that you can do in Mumbai surely…
But I did! I would cycle from my home to the gym every morning pretty regularly… even now, I do so sometimes. But yes, cycling through Calcutta was a new experience. To avoid the crowd, we would go very early… 5am or 6am… 

You gave 17-18 days to Calcutta to shoot Piku. The locations could have been recreated in Mumbai also. Was there a special desire to shoot just in Calcutta?
We had the time, actually. It was a tight schedule and we would even shoot late at night or at dawn… we would do the cycling shots at Esplanade and Shyambazar… which is very crowded. But the crowd wasn’t unruly. 

They were mesmerised… mass hypnotism… 
No, no (laughs). There is a difference in Calcutta… they understand that this is a film and they must not do anything to interrupt it. People in many other cities don’t understand that... I have done so many films there… Do Anjaane…. I also shot Yaarana in Netaji (Indoor) Stadium. Fantastic experiences. 
How do you still get the inspiration… where does the hunger come from… to keep doing fresh and new things?
Ki jaani, baba! (Laughs) One should keep getting work… every new challenge, the chance to do something new inspires me. I believe that getting old doesn’t mean sitting at home and not working. I feel fortunate that there are still some people who want to work with me. My work keeps me occupied. I pray that I keep working till the last day of my life. 

During your Calcutta years, was there any experience that will stay with you forever?
There were many people who I had met through Jaya… Rabi Ghosh… we would be part of an adda. I had come to shoot Saudagar here and Jaya had come with me and every day after shoot, we would sit with many of our artiste friends here and chat. Now, Rabida is not there… many people are gone… but I still meet the people I would work with. They love and respect me.... Even today, I feel like going to Victoria Memorial and having phuchka. A little further, under the Howrah Bridge, there would be (Durga) Puja and the idols would be immersed there. We used to sit on the banks of the river and watch the boats. We would eat kati kebabs… can’t forget all those things… it’s impossible to.... We travel a lot in connection with work and are treated well everywhere, but there are some things that touch the heart. There isn’t a single thing about Calcutta that I don’t like. Now, even Park Street has changed a bit, but I still like it. 

Before shooting for Piku in Calcutta, you apparently learnt a few Bangla phrases from Jayadi... is Bangla spoken at home?
Not so much. But when Jaya’s mother and sisters come visiting, then there is a lot of Bangla spoken. But at home, we generally speak in Hindi and English. But all these expressions like… joto dosh Nando Ghosh… I learnt from Hrishida (Hrishikesh Mukherjee). 

Did you take any tips from Jayadi for Piku?
No, no. She doesn’t even know what the story is… otherwise she would have said: ‘Yeh theek nahin kiya, woh theek nahin kiya’… Baba! (Folds his hands and laughs)

In Piku, you have spoken a lot of Bangla… 
(Laughs) Chhoti, chhoti baatein… woh nikal jaati hain kabhi kabhi. There was a Bengali atmosphere on set and talking in that language was fun. Shoojit is Bengali and the story of Piku is all about Bengal and Bengalis… so, it was nice to work in that atmosphere. 

You were Dr Bhaskar Banerjee in Anand and now Bhaskor Banerji in Piku….
Anand had a totally different Bhaskar… he was young. The one in Piku is old and has a paunch and he’s got problems with his stomach (laughs). This is a common complaint in Bengal… you eat and then you debate your stomach problem… you ask all kinds of questions. On set, we had typically Bengali things… Isabgol, ghee…. 

Shoojit’s daughters have said that when he grows old, he will become like Bhaskor! What makes him the universal old man?
A lot of films have been made on the father-son relationship, but the father-daughter relationship has had very few films. The daughter is a very important element in a family. When you go to a Bangla house, you will hear ‘Maa go’. This could be religious in terms of Durga Maa or Kali Maa, but it could also mean the woman… the daughter.... 

Will you do a Bangla film if the script is good?
I feel scared... I won’t be able to do it. The language has to be correct… I don’t know too much Bangla. 

How much did you have to study the culture of Bengal while doing Piku?
I left it all to Shoojitda. Before going on set, I would discuss with Shoojitda. He incorporated all my suggestions. On set, I would improvise quite a bit, but we didn’t really take a specific cultural or literary line deliberately. 

Throughout this interview, you have spoken from the heart. Do you think that because you listened to your heart you couldn’t be successful in business or politics?
Politics, I don’t know. Business fail hoye gelo… ki bolbo aami? Politics was an emotional moment… and I realised very soon that I couldn’t be emotional about it. Business was also the same. We made some bad decisions and incurred losses, but that’s part of life. I now do what I can do… acting.    

Amitabh Bachchan as Bhaskor Banerji is.... Tell t2@abp.in