To begin at the very beginning, Amitabh Bachchan completed his graduation in Delhi and spent a few years in Kolkata working as an executive but his heart was restless and his brother reading his mind, one day clicked his pictures and posted them to a film magazine holding a contest for newcomers.  

He was rejected for the contest but he decided to give his dream a chance and arrived in Mumbai at that time Bombay, carrying his driving license with him so that if nothing worked out for him, he could ride a taxi for survival.

He made his debut with Khwaja Abbas’s Saat Hindustani/ 1969 with six other heroes but at the preview of the film it was Amitabh who caught the attention of the legendary Meena Kumari. ‘Ye ladke mein baat hai’ Meena Kumari told KA Abbas and true to her prediction, he won his first National Award for Saat Hindustani and a year later, in 1970 Amitabh featured as Dr Bhaskar with the then superstar Rajesh Khanna in Hrishikesh Mukherji’s all time classic Anand.

A lot has been written about Amitabh’s struggle in the early days but today, when I revisit his filmography, I realize he had just three years of waiting before stardom which is normal in showbusiness, so there is a possibility that the trauma he endured was not about the uncertainty but the recurrent rejections he was subjected to. His films were flopping one after another at the box-office and he was being replaced in projects without explanations. Top heroines refused to work with him, producers called him unlucky and directors said he lacked charisma. Journalists ridiculed him in their columns, said he was too tall and resembled a palm tree.

The dismissals hurt I’m sure but this was not the time for expression and Amitabh waited for his time.

Then just like it happens in films, one day, out of the blue, star writers Salim-Javed driving past Chandan Theatre, spontaneously decided to check out new release Bombay To Goa, liked the way Amitabh Bachchan projected anger on-screen and convinced filmmaker Prakash Mehra to cast him as the lead for Zanjeer/ 1973 and rest is history.

To be continued…@bhawanasomaaya

So Shoojit Sircar’s Gulabo Sitabo is all set to premiere on June 12 on Amazon Prime Video and the film will be simultaneously published in two hundred plus countries.
Sircar describes it as the dawn of a new era in Indian entertainment and cannot conceal his excitement that a global audience will be watching his gritty dramedy in different parts of the world at the same time.
A few days ago, Amitabh Bachchan tweeted that in his long career starting from the year 1969 to 2020, he has witnessed many changes, challenges over the last five decades of working in cinema and he now looks forward to another challenge, of experiencing the digital release of his forthcoming feature, Gulabo Sitabo India’s debut mainstream digital release starring Bachchan and Ayushman Khurana.
The headline set me thinking….
In every profession and in movies particularly, it is the circumstances and the choices made that determine the journey of an artist or a film, and every time we turn the pages of Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachchan will be visible at the turning points of the entertainment business.
In the forthcoming days, I will attempt to recapture the events and images over the last five decades that defined show business and how Amitabh Bachchan unwittingly led the way…
To be continued…@bhawanasomaaya

A colleague who has been following my blog forwarded me this picture with Irrfan Khan. I have no memory of this picture – the year or the event, I mean I recognize Tanishtha Chatterjee in the frame and going by my saree it seems like year 2000 picture clicked at a film festival dinner in Mumbai or elsewhere but I have no recollection of any conversation exchanged that evening with either Irrfan Khan or anybody else in this picture.
It sounds dramatic but I’d like to receive this picture as a symbol of detachment, of Irrfan asking all of us to move on without clinging to his memories. There is a possibility that he read my thoughts about searching for him outside the coffee shop and does not want me to…
He knows it will not be possible because the lockdown will continue for a while and that coffee shop may never open up again.
Therefore, this postcard from heaven to say disconnect, detach and carry on…

@bhawanasomaaya

On the first day of the week as I sat before the computer, wondering what I was going to write about, a photographer friend sent me two timely images which I would like to describe as Postcards from Heaven. Sometimes, unknowingly, some people send you memories that help you draw closure to a festering wound. This picture was taken after my recording with Neetu Kapoor on her birthday at her now demolished bungalow Krishna. Daughter Riddhima was visiting home and joined the interview to wish her mother but it was a task to convince little Samara to be a part of the generation picture. She agreed after a lot of persuasions. It is eighteen days since Rishi Kapoor has left the family but where ever he is, he knows there is enough love amidst all of them to find strength and carry on…The second image I will share tomorrow.
@bhawanasomaaya

In the year 2016 Irrfan Khan produced a film called Madaari which was released after a lot of delay and the reviews to the film were far from flattering. Irrfan was shooting in a faraway location when he got news of the box-office collection and the reviews and was naturally upset. A day later, he called me to ask me if I had seen the film and what I thought of it, I took a pause not wanting to be instantly harsh and said, ‘Not up to the mark’. He was quiet for a while but absorbed the criticism clinically, said, ‘In that case, it seems like we have failed in our communication.’
Before disconnecting, he said he was relieved to hear the truth because now he will stop brooding and focus on his new film. I was amazed by his positive attitude and understood why his co-stars and directors looked forward to working with him again and again. In the coming years, our meetings became more and more infrequent. We exchanged messages on phone during Hindi Medium.
Soon came news of his diagnosis, his treatment abroad, his return home, his shooting followed by the release of English Medium, and then his demise. It all happened so rapidly that one wonders if one is imagining it. When the lockdown is over, I’ll visit the coffee shop where I first bumped into Irrfan Khan many years ago and maybe, I might just find him there, hanging out with his friends, smoking like old times and I’ll ask him how he can go away without saying goodbyes.
Concluded
@bhawanasomaaya

Two years later, when Irrfan Khan’s Lunch Box was to be released, he was in great spirit probably because he knew he had given a great performance and was receiving rave reviews at international festivals. It was his first brush with super savvy Karan Johar and his masterminded marketing. It was around this time I released my one more book Talking Cinema: Conversations with Actors and Filmmaker and I asked Karan and Irrfan to release it together. Irrfan was curious about the book and asked me many questions, one of them was why he was not included in my book. I joked that he was not meant to be a part of a crowd and deserves a book by himself. He laughed heartily and posed for my picture.

He was in a reflective mood that day and when we were alone in a corner, asked me what he must do to improve his persona. My experience warned me that this was not a casual question, there is a possibility that he had been thinking about it for a while and unable to find the answers. In normal circumstances I would not have reacted but Irrfan was so earnest that I responded just as spontaneously, advised him that perhaps it was time for him to get a little vain and pay more attention to his appearance, he could have got offended but he was indulgent, asked him how.

I told him that the first thing he needs to do is to seek an dermatologist and treat his under eyes because once that is cured his close-ups will blossom and the second to quit smoking. When I met him a few months later at a party, Irrfan was wearing large dark glasses, when he saw me he said softly ‘Everyone is assuming my shades are a fashion statement but I have followed your advice and  the  treatment is successful now I’m working on the second thing but that’s very difficult’.

To be continued

@bhawanasomaaya

The next time I met Irrfan Khan, he was making a name for himself in the movies. I mean he was already known for Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay and Govind Nihalini’s Drishti but he was slowly and gradually making a way for himself in the masala movies, did approximately eighteen films between 1988 – 1999 but what brought him into spotlight was friend Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Haasil.
In 2003 Irrfan did Naseerudin Shah’s Yun Hota Toh Kaisa Hota and Maqbool with Vishal Bharadwaj. Maqbool changed his destiny, his co-star Tabu revealed that the credit of transforming Irrfan’s screen persona goes to Vishal Bharadwaj who presented Irrfan a relative newcomer like a star and Irrfan agreed with Tabu, added that ‘When a filmmaker believes in the actor, the actor believes in himself and the chemistry is evident on the screen and that’s what happened in Maqbool’.
In 2011 for Vidya Balan’s private screening of The Dirty Picture Irrfan was seated beside me. Post the screening Irrfan, Vidya and I got into a long discussion about the film where we discussed the merits and demerits of biopics. Irrfan was working on Paan Singh Tomar at that time and was curious to know if Vidya and I heard about him. When we drew a blank, he looked visibly disappointed, said ‘Aapne nahi suna hani toh kissi ne suna han, tohi phir meri film kaun dekhega?’ He need not have worried because Paan Singh Tommar proved a big hit and got Irrfan Khan rave reviews and awards. So did his film The Namesake and Life of Pii both with Tabu, Irrfan described Tabu as his screen soulmate, said ‘Whenever we have worked together it has been magic’.

To be continued…