He’s come a long way AB. From a superhero who had a nation on its knees for his recovery to an industry doing a repeat. This time, for its dues. The Bangalore-based Spastics Society awaits an additional Rs 30 lakh it was promised; a whopping Rs 17 crore is allegedly due to Doordarshan; film distributors are wary of treading on his Rs 3 crore territory and the venue of the hyped ‘Miss World’ pageant has shifted to the more idyllic locales of Seychelles.
But Lal Badshah, Amitabh Bachchan, is hardly red in the face. Somewhere along the way, the superstar had switched—from superman to middleman.
August ’95 reconfirmed Bachchan’s penchant for prime ministers as his tony Juhu residence became the controversial venue of the Deve Gowda-Bal Thackeray rendezvous. Contemporary Shatrughan Sinha, however, asserts that Bachchan’s tryst with politics was not the beginning of the end: "His entry into politics was not the problem because people welcomed him with open arms. He failed because he had to fail. Amitabh Bachchan is not cut out for politics because he is only cut out for cutouts." As things stand today, even that seems doubtful.
In fact, just before the release of the ABCL production Mrityudaata in early ’97, a Mumbai-based noon tabloid ran a centre-spread on the 10 most-hated personalities in the country. Bachchan’s place in the scorching sun was among the top three. Reasons: for selling stardom at Rs 250 apiece through his talent-scouting arm ‘Startrack’ and the shoddy treatment meted out to the Spastics Society!
On the professional front, the eponymous ABCL handed out termination letters to its high-flying employees—one even served out at a marriage function.
Nailed by a beauty pageant, the infant ABCL collapsed under the weight of its own grandiose shortcuts to success.Finally, when the Rs 64-crore company eased itself out of the Miss World contract this year, the event wasn’t even given a decent funeral.
Meantime, on the personal front, rumours buzzed that a former lady love had resurrected a B in her bonnet. And Bachchan battled with the reality of being 55 with a top director claiming that making the ageing hero look good "was a mighty strain". "Amitabh Bachchan is tremendously talented as evident in Agnipath ; all he needs is discretion about the films he’s doing. I don’t think romantic costume capers like Lal Badshah with Manisha Koirala and Shilpa Shetty will help. He has had a miss, now he needs a hit," says Movie editor Dinesh Raheja.
But Bachchan’s attempts at bouncing back have been nothing short of desperate. Mrityudaata turned out to be a scream test with Bachchan’s spirited performance as a drunk doctor reeking of spurious stuff. Accusations flew in all directions —but the obvious one.
Today, bade miyan Amitabh piggybacks on chote miyan Govinda in quest of the elusive hit. And young television upstarts like Sajid Khan repeatedly rib him as "a national joke". "The personality of the old Amitabh does not exist any more, even if the voice and the actor are the same. Finally, in films one is dealing with images and not the person," agrees script writer Salim Khan who co-scripted Bachchan’s magnum opus Sholay, alongside Javed Akhtar.
The king, too, has compromised on his price. Aby Baby is now Aby Maybe. Strangely, life has come a full circle for the numero uno
