Amitabh Bachchan has seen the blockbuster success of many of his films in his nearly 50-year-old career, but the megastar says the prospect of a movie not working still worries him.
The 75-year-old actor’s latest outing “102 Not Out”, co-starring Rishi Kapoor, has not only earned favourable reviews, but is also doing well commercially.
When asked if there is still a fear of failure before the release of a movie, Bachchan told reporters, “It’s always there. From the day we begin, much before the release, that’s all we talk about – what is going to happen, how many theatres, how much do we expect, if people are going to like it or not…” “That’s always a worry for us. Even now, backstage Chintu (Rishi) and I were talking, what is the collection, what is going to happen in the days to come.”
The actor was speaking at a special event to celebrate the film’s success. Bachchan said he recently met his “Thugs of Hindostan” co-star Aamir Khan, who is known to strike gold at the box office with his films, to understand the math behind churning money-spinners. “I met Aamir recently and he had a peculiar financial reading. He said if your weekend collection is Rs 10 crore, if you multiply it by three, that’s the estimate of your lifetime collection… So there is all this mathematic reasoning behind it which I didn’t know,” he said.
Based on playwright Saumya Joshi’s popular Gujarati play of the same name, the comedy-drama featured Bachchan as a fun-loving 102-year-old father to Kapoor – as his 75-year-old son. The actor said his wife and Rajya Sabha MP-actor Jaya Bhaduri had a smart observation about the film. “My family really liked the film, the children loved it. Madam (Bhaduri) is critical of my work. A lot of the times she won’t even say anything. This time, she told me the timing of the film is really nice. There are big, sci-fi Hollywood projects releasing like ‘Avengers’ and suddenly here is our small film, which will make a place in people’s heart. She was right,” he said.
When asked if his son actor Ranbir liked the film, Kapoor quipped, “He won’t say anything wrong. But since he stays in other house, he can say that too. But everyone liked the film and all the performances.” The film reunites the powerhouse performers on screen after 27 years. The two actors have earlier appeared together in films such as “Kabhie Kabhie”, “Amar Akbar Anthony”, “Naseeb”, “Coolie” and “Ajooba”.