Gautam Bhattacharya (MID-DAY; October 11, 2017)

On the occasion of Amitabh Bachchan’s 75th birthday, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar speaks about his earliest memories of watching the Big B on screen, his first experience of meeting the megastar back in 1993, what Bachchan movies taught him about aggression and how his son Arjun almost played party pooper during another occasion.

They talk about a trio that occupies a special place in India’s psyche - Mangeshkar, Bachchan, Tendulkar. This is a super special league in terms of admiration, respect and consistency...
I certainly do not belong to that league. Please remove my name [laughs]. I agree it’s a special league, but it’s meant for only two of them — Lataji and Amitji. Period.

You are being humble..
This is no humility. I grew up listening to Lataji’s songs and watching Mr Bachchan’s movies. They are cult figures. The best part about them is that they are endlessly perfecting their craft.

From which areas can one draw inspiration from them?
There are plenty. To start with, both are so humble. My father kept talking about this value called humility. The way these two carry themselves make me understand what he had exactly meant. Another very important quality — they are never satisfied with what they have achieved. There is still so much intensity left in them even after so many years! I marvel at the way they keep pushing. Look at Amit ji, isn’t it mesmerizing the way he keeps on reinventing himself?

Where did you first meet Amitabh Bachchan?
He was already part of the system since childhood [laughs]. But the first time I met him in the flesh was in Delhi in 1993. A special dinner was thrown for the Indian team. It was attended by several celebrities from other walks of life came. Amitji happened to be there.

Tell us about your first meeting with the superstar.
It was fabulous. He was gracious and appreciative of my cricket. Before leaving, he wished me luck, which was a big boost.

Many cricketers have found his action movies inspiring. Are you one of them?
When I was very young, I watched his movies just for the sake of watching them. At that stage, what perhaps drew me was the action part. At different stages of life, you admire the same thing for different reasons. As you grow older, you realise how difficult it must have been for Amitji to enact those roles. Later on, of course, I saw him doing everything — be it emotional, aggressive, tragic or romantic [roles].