Abhishek Bachchan is bright, charming, well behaved but naughty. And while he is his father, the one and only Amitabh Bachchan's biggest fan, he has grown up watching and admiring Rishi Kapoor. In a brief conversation with him, while shooting Bhushan Kumar's family entertainer All Is Well at Film City, in which he is playing Rishi Kapoor's son, we spoke to him about the experience of working with the legend Rishi Kapoor who he has grown up watching and how different he is as an actor viz a viz his father. Excerpts:

Since your childhood, you have seen your father work with Rishi Kapoor so many times. How does it feel for you to now work with him yourself?
It's superb. You have to still remind yourself and wake up as it's like a dream. Chintu uncle has been one of my favourites since I was a kid. For me, it was always dad and Chintu uncle. I interacted with him a fair amount during Ajooba that was being made by Shashi uncle (Shashi Kapoor). I have always been a huge fan of his so wherever he would be shooting with dad, I would show up on the set and sit with him. He would have so many stories to tell and was great fun to be with. And then, as an actor it was a dream to work with him and I first got the chance in Delhi 6 but when Umesh Shukla told me that he wanted to approach Chintu uncle for All Is Well, I was very excited as this film is only about the two of us throughout. It's a film about repartee, about relationships and it's a father-son film. It's been too much fun working with him.

You have done films with both your father and now with Rishiji. How different was the experience?
It's completely different as they are very different actors. Their approaches are very unique to themselves. You don't just become an Amitabh Bachchan or Rishi Kapoor just like that. Chintu uncle is very spontaneous as a performer. He is very unpredictable as he will always surprise you by doing something so different and refreshing. He is very clear as an actor. Even as a human being he is very clear. It's so nice to meet someone like that as we all strive to be like that, to know ourselves so well, know our mind so well and be definitive about your decisions. I admire the amount of clarity of thought that he has. He is not afraid to voice his opinion. If you can persuade him otherwise, he is willing to try it and be gracious enough to accept it. Legends do that, they have the ability to adapt and not stand on ego. Pa with me, obviously with him being a father, I am presuming that it is difficult for him to switch off as a father, so you want to be protective, you want to guide and you'd want to help. With Chintu uncle the relationship is different as by the grace of God, he treats me as a co-star. He has seen me born, seen me as a kid, seen me as a young actor and now we are working together but he treats me like a buddy. He likes and encourages that. He is not someone who likes to stand up in ceremony and say, I am your senior who has worked with your father and so you must treat me in a particular way. There is an air of informality with him. With my father, although I am very casual with him, there is a line that I would never cross. With Pa, when he is acting with me, the parental instinct kicks off and I presume he is looking out more for me in the shot than for himself. Also, while Chintu uncle is very spontaneous, my father is someone who has taught me that the more rehearsals you do, the better your performances are going to get. I remember we were doing a scene in Bunty Aur Babli, a scene where we are both getting drunk in a bar just before the Kajra Re song. My father just encouraged me to rehearse and rehearse and carry on rehearsing. My dad believes in rehearsing. He has the amazing ability to work out the most minutest details in his performance. Being an admirer of his work, being his son and having done many films with him, I can tell you when you see him perform and even when he blinks, he has thought of it and, he has planned it. He is that finite a performer. There is not one movement that he has not planned and not done for a reason. That's how detailed an actor he is.

So are you more spontaneous or practised?
I am a spontaneous actor trying to be detailed. I am more like my mother as a performer. My mother is someone who will hear a scene, go through it and just see what comes out naturally. Her performances and approach are far more instinctual. My father would want to sit down and work out every nuance. They are completely different styles of acting and they are both immensely difficult to master. And they both have done that brilliantly. That is also true of Chintu uncle. So, I would say that I am an attempting spontaneous actor wanting to be very detailed and am somewhere between both my parents. It's legendary to be scolded by a Rishi Kapoor on set.

Has he ever scolded you?
No he hasn't. He does not play the uncle angle with me. Also, at some level maybe I am doing something right so he doesn't need to scold me, but I would love for him to scold me and correct me. How wonderful it would be to be taught and corrected by Chintu uncle.

Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; April 6, 2014)

Ever wondered what happens to the numerous outfits worn by actors in a film? Bollywood stars break into a song on screen, crooning atop snow-capped mountains, flowing valleys and exotic flower beds or, gyrating in different costumes every nanosecond. By the time the last shot of the film is taken, there are stacks of clothes left behind.

Some may be garish, others outlandish and some wearable off screen as well, but most make their way to the production house’s trunks, or petis in Bollywood parlance. They are stacked and rehashed for the production house’s future projects.

Of course, at times, something an actor fancies goes home with him or her (no questions asked). Or when celebrity designers are styling for the lead stars, the outfits go with the designer. It all comes under the production costs incurred for a film.

Actress Ayesha Khanna, who starred in the recent release Dishkiyaaon, has been a stylist for Yash Raj Films such as Band Baja Baaraat (2010) and Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl (2011). She says, “At Yash Raj, all the costumes are stacked in petis. Each peti is labelled so that you know exactly for which film the lead stars, supporting cast and the extras wore the clothes. Later, for another film, things get mixed and matched.”

Ayesha cites an example, “Aishwarya Rai’s Kajra Re item number outfit from the 2005 film Bunty Aur Babli was used on a background dancer in Band Baaja Baaraat in 2010. It was mixed and matched. The choli was worn with another ghaghra, so it was impossible that anyone will notice it.”



However, not all stylists follow this mantra. Navin Shetty has styled for several films, including Zanjeer, Himmatwala and Agneepath. He styles Ajay Devgn in his films, too. The designer does not believe in the reuse theory or in cutting corners. “I approach every film afresh. I don’t recycle stuff or rehash from costumes used in an earlier project. After understanding the actor’s character in the film, I go about making the costumes. Sometimes they may be bought off the shelves, if something catches my fancy and I feel it suits the character.”

He adds, “Once the shoot is over, everything goes to the production house’s petis. It is their property, I have nothing to do with it. By that time I have moved on to another project.” He also styled brother-in-law, director Rohit Shetty, for the ongoing reality show, Khatron Ke Khiladi which he hosts. “All his outfits have gone back to the production house,” he adds.

B-Town designer, Leepakshi Ellawadi, who is currently styling Shraddha Kapoor for Ek Villain says, “For a designer, once the film’s shoot is complete, so is the job. What the production house or the stars do with the outfits, is their prerogative. Often an actor wants to add his or her touch to his/her look in the film and gets stuff from his/her own wardrobe.”

She earlier styled Amitabh Bachchan in his 2011 film Bbuddah... Hoga Terra Baap. Big B had accompanied her on a shopping trip in London. “We picked up a lot of high-end labels. Several alterations had to be made. He was apprehensive about whether he could carry it off, but he pulled it off well.”

Even when stars have taken a personal interest in the shopping, the stuff usually goes back to the petis.
“Some actors may like an outfit and want to keep it for nostalgia’s sake, but it is no big deal,” concludes Ayesha.

One film, 125 costumes
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wore over 125 costumes in Vipul Shah’s 2010 film Action Replayy. The makers claimed that it was a record as most Bollywood films have 40 costume changes on an average including those in songs. The wrap-up shot alone had the actress doing nine dress changes. The justification came from the fact that Ash’s character had a fetish for clothes. Vipul realised that the number of costumes were high when the person who was managing Ash’s costumes kept demanding more and more space to store them.

Small screen scene