While most actors half his age are still wondering about when to get back into action, Amitabh Bachchan brought in his 78th birthday on Sunday on a set, but took a break to be with the family for a rather quiet celebration later in the day. After battling the Coronavirus for almost three weeks, the actor has resumed work on the ongoing season of his reality show, Kaun Banega Crorepati. He shoots from 9 am to 9 pm, and then puts in a stint at the recording studio, rationalising his hectic schedule with something his father, poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, would always say, “Jab tak jeevan hai, tab tak sangharsh hai (Till the time one lives, the struggle continues).”

From November, the actor will commence shoot on his action fantasy adventure, Brahmastra, fronted by Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. “It’s just patchwork so he should be done in less than a week,” revealed a source close to the actor.

After Brahmastra, there’s a yet-to-be-announced project, before he moves to Nag Ashwin’s futuristic sci-fi, also featuring Prabhas and Deepika Padukone, which is expected to roll in the summer of 2021. Bachchan plays one of the central characters, who is at the core of the conflict. Contrary to speculations, it’s not a cameo, but a full-fledged role and he has already allotted bulk dates for it.

After wrapping it up, Big B will commence Vikas Bahl’s coming-of-age comedy, Deadly, which revolves around a funeral. “He has been in contact with the filmmaker all through the lockdown and has had multiple script reading sessions with Vikas,” informs the source. He will be joined by an A-list actress.

Over the last few months, Bachchan has also been busy dubbing for two films which are complete, Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s Jhund, in which he plays football coach to a team of slum kids, and Rumy Jafry’s Chehre where he puts a stranger — who has sought refuge at his outhouse for the night after his car breaks down on the dock in his mock courtroom telling him, “Behind every successful man is a crime.”