Big B’s first time on a gossip column

Brut India

"This is the end of him.” Amitabh Bachchan revealed the harshest things written about him and how he dealt with them.   : Disney+ Hotstar

Transcript

00:00For the first time you get your name mentioned in the gossip column, it's a moment of great excitement for you.

00:07I remember her saying, his son is setting. This is the end of him.

00:14Front page article on me, which was titled, finished.

00:23Media would like to have adjectives because they make good copy.

00:27But how awkward does it get when there's things reported?

00:31On a personal level, does it make you awkward when you confront the same person?

00:37Not at all. I think that all of us are pretty sure.

00:41Do you believe in brushing it under the carpet of what the media has reported or addressing it with the person?

00:46I think that you have to take a call on that very early on in your life as to what you're going to do.

00:52Initially you're worried about whether you're going to actually make it or not.

00:55Whether you're going to be successful, whether your films are going to do well.

00:58You wonder when you're going to be written about.

01:02The first time you get your name mentioned in the gossip column, it's a moment of great excitement for you.

01:11Do you remember the first time you were mentioned? Did you get a big kick out of that?

01:16I remember my name was mentioned for the first time by Devyani Chowdhury.

01:21And I actually slipped that paper under my pillow and said, gosh, my name's there.

01:27And what was the rumor she wrote about?

01:29I don't know. I can't remember that. But it was something that she wrote.

01:31Something scandalous?

01:32Not really. It was pretty decent.

01:35But the fact is that…

01:36She mentioned your name.

01:37Mentioned your name and you find yourself in the columns, which is a great thing.

01:42And then gradually as you go along, those very columns start becoming a kind of a pain for you.

01:49So somewhere there is a kind of a dichotomy that happens in our lives.

01:52Yes.

01:53I don't think that we have the liberty to control that.

01:58Yes.

01:59We love it. And then when suddenly it goes against us…

02:03We want to fight it.

02:04We don't want it at all or we want to fight it.

02:07And that's a dichotomy.

02:08And I think that you should be fair in this game.

02:11If you have given the liberty to a journalist to write something about you.

02:15Do you ever remember what the worst piece of criticism you ever read about yourself and did it ever get to you?

02:20Oh, yes.

02:21Like the one line that stayed in your head, in your life.

02:24Oh, many, many.

02:25I think Devyani Chowdhury saw Mukaddar Ka Sikandar or either that or Laavaris or Mukaddar Ka Sikandar or something.

02:35And I remember her saying, his son is setting.

02:41This is the end of him.

02:43Or words to that effect.

02:45But I feel that, you know, these words are…

02:50Well, this was her opinion.

02:51She felt that this was the end of my career.

02:53But I think that contrary to that, it can act as a great incentive for you to actually disprove something.

03:00And that gives you a big kick at the end of it.

03:02And it gives you a big kick when you can disprove that.

03:05Then many years passed and then there were some more failures after about 10 years.

03:12And I remember Pritish Nandy was in charge of the Illustrated Weekly at that time.

03:17And he did a headline, a front page article on me, which was titled Finished.

03:23Finished.

03:24Yeah.

03:25And with my, with the whole article on me.

03:27And I, yeah, it hurts at times.

03:31But what I did was I took that magazine and I kept it on my desk.

03:36And every morning I used to watch it.

03:38And I say, I have to challenge this.

03:40And in fact, during those times, I had Pritish over for a casual evening one day.

03:46And he noticed that magazine and he said, what are you doing with this magazine?

03:50And I said, this is my inspiration to disprove you someday.

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