Abhishek Bachchan is getting a lot of accolades for his latest performance in ‘I Want To Talk‘, directed by Shoojit Sircar. Many reviews have pointed out that this one seems like his career best or comes as a second close to Mani Ratnam‘s ‘Guru’. In an exclusive chat with Etimes, Abhishek and Sircar opened up all about this film. Ask him if he approached this movie differently or if this is his re-birth as an actor, here’s what Abhishek has to say.
“Re-birth of an actor, is a wonderful compliment. That should be the endeavour of every actor. You are yourself so there will be a jhalak of you in every film but you have endeavour has to be to re-invent yourself in each film. You should try your best to not be repetitive. The attempt should be to try and do something you’ve never done before. You always want your approach also to have that. Each director has their own approach and method. You have to be on that ride and and once you’re on that ride you have to submit completely. That’s my belief system. I’ve managed to be true to that for the large part of my career, I think so.”
Tell Abhishek that many felt after seeing the movie that, they were watching Irrfan on screen and not him, thus, people are showering love and here’s what he says. “That’s got nothing to do with me. Actors are very well-paid, pampered puppets. Here’s the grand master puppeteer,” said Abhishek pointing at Shoojit.
Thus, he believes in completing trusting the director. Talking about working with Shoojit, he says, “He doesn’t like his actors to act. He wants his actors to just be, so he spends months sometimes preparing them to be that character. It seems a bit bizarre at first because it’s not conventional. I asked him, what he wants, he just said, ‘trust me’. One of the first exercises we do in acting groups is trust exercises. When I did it in drama school when I was 14-15, but today you realise that. As an actor, you are literally ripping off your heart and giving it to the director and telling them, ‘take my heart, I’m very fragile’.”
He further added how one should then forget their image or stardom. “After you’ve made that decision of trusting the director, if you still think, ‘main toh star hu, yeh nahi karunga’ then I’m not allowing him to do what he wants to do. I’ll give you an example of ‘Forest Gump‘. One of the biggest films of all times. He’s not heroic, but his character is heroic. So, every actor has to take the leap of faith.”
That’s perhaps why, Abhishek prefers to work with people he can trust. “Most times actors do submit themselves. But sometimes, I understand why actors don’t do so, because you’ve burnt your fingers but choose to work with people who you can trust,” said the actor.