When Amitabh Bachchan Went Bankrupt

"Don’t ever have a backup." Watch Abhishek Bachchan talk about how he left his education to help Big B's struggling business.  : BeerBiceps

Transcript

00:00I don't have a job, I don't, nobody's giving me work anymore, my movies aren't working

00:04and I've come to ask you to please give me a film to work in and I left my education because

00:10my father was going through this really rough time financially.

00:16Well truth be told, I left university, I was studying in Boston University and I was doing,

00:25I declared my major as liberal arts and then I majored in performing arts and I left my

00:32education because my father was going through this really rough time financially. He had started a

00:37business called EBCL and I just felt, I don't think I was qualified to help in any which way,

00:42but I just felt as a son, I needed to be around my father, you know, and help in whatever way.

00:48So I left my college, I came back and I started helping him in his company. I started as a

00:53production boy, so I should literally, I mean, I was a glorified team maker basically. I just

00:58remember there was one late night, early morning, I was in my room, I had just gone to sleep and my

01:07father, you know, called me on the intercom and he said, hey, are you awake? I said, well, I am now

01:13and he said, will you come up to my study? And I went up to his study and you could make out that

01:19he'd obviously not slept, he'd been up all night just sitting in a study and he said, you know,

01:24things aren't working out, my movies aren't working out, this business is not working out,

01:29nothing is working out and I've always believed that when everything is going wrong,

01:38go back to basics. He said, I'm an actor, I got to go back to acting and I'm not happy with the

01:46way I'm looking, I'm not happy with the way I'm feeling, I'm going to do something about it

01:50and he said, you know what, I've decided we're going to make this work and you and I are going

01:56to have to work very hard. I hate to say this to you because, you know, you're going to be making

02:02your foray into the films but we're going to fight and let's make this happen and that's the

02:07kind of relationship my father and I share, we're best friends and I said, okay. I went back to bed,

02:15he got, he had a shower and left for the gym at like 5 30 in the morning and from there he came

02:22back from the gym, showered and walked across to Mr. Yash Chopra's house and told Yash uncle that,

02:29look, I don't have a job, I don't, nobody's giving me work anymore, my movies aren't working and I've

02:34come to ask you to please give me a film to work in and Yash uncle that evening, he said, okay,

02:42I don't know how can you say that you're my friend, just that I'll work something out and

02:45that evening he sent Aditya Chopra over to him and they offered him Morbide. I've always said

02:50this publicly, my parents never brought me up to be a quitter, it was do or die, you know,

02:57I firmly believe in life, don't ever have a backup. If you have that one backup, you're always

03:04going to rely and know that at the back of your head that I've got that backup, so if this doesn't

03:08work, I have that option and we all think like that, we're all brought up like that, especially

03:12in Indian households, you know, have that one safety net. You've seen Dark Knight Rises, do you

03:17remember that one time when he's trying to break out of the prison and the final time he does it

03:22without the rope and he said, what were they saying and they were just saying, you know,

03:26there is no rope, remember that, that's the way you're going to lead your life, man, if you're

03:31going to, you're going to jump in both feet into the deep end and figure out how to swim because

03:37the minute you know that there is that one option, you're always going to take that option

03:41when it gets really tough, no matter how much willpower you have, how determined you are,

03:47it's just human instinct, when you don't have that safety net, you're just going to have to make it

03:52work and that's the way I've always approached my work, I've never given up despite any roadblocks

03:58or obstacles or setbacks and that's it, man, you know, like Rocky says, it's not about how hard

04:06you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, that's how winning is done.