Amitabh Bachchan to star in The Actor
Amitabh Bachchan has been signed on to play the role of Ashmit Bhargava, a superstar, in Pritish Nandy Communications’ The Actor.
Photo: Amitabh Bachchan
The Actor, which has shades of Bachchan’s life, has been penned by Pritish Nandy’s son Kushan Nandy, Kiran Shyam Shroff, and Ghalib Asad.
Amitabh Bachchan was the most obvious choice for Nandy. In fact, the movie seems to have been written for him. Even the initials of the superstar in The Actor, Ashmit Bhargava, are the same as that of Amitabh Bachchan.
Pritish Nandy has said, “The protagonist has to be an icon who’s about 55-60 years old, portraying what’s according to the script the greatest actor playing the biggest role of his life.”
Amitabh Bachchan has worked with Pritish Nandy Communications once before for the movie Kaante, directed by Sanjay Gupta. Bachchan and Pritish Nandy have never worked together again until now with The Actor.
In 2008, an year dominated by the Khans, Amitabh Bachchan did not have any significant releases. In 2009, though, he will be seen in Johnny Mastana and Aladin, which are in post-production. Amitabh Bachchan’s other releases will be Kunal Avadana, and Teen Patti, which are in pre-production. Bachchan will also be seen in Mira Nair’s Shantaram, which is also currently in pre-production.
The other Amitabh Bachchan film that will go into production in 2009 is Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Taalisman that will star Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Sanjay Dutt. The fantasy film is based on the Hindi novel, Chandrakanta.
Photo: Priyanka Chopra and Abhishek Bachchan in Drona: Holding in the tummy
Amitabh Bachchan plays an old warrier in the movie, Aishwarya Rai plays a princess, and Abhishek Bachchan plays a (gasp) warrior prince. I wish someone would tell him that warriors are generally not tubby creatures who cover themselves from head to toe to hide their flab, and certainly don’t have double chins.
John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan in Dostana: The fit and the fat
One hopes he has learnt that from Hrithik Roshan in Jodhaa Akbar.
Amitabh Bachchan is considered one of the biggest, if not the biggest, superstar of the century. He certainly has had an enduring career, lasting long past the sell-by date of actors. Bachchan has had a busy career of nearly 40 years now, which puts him in the league of legends like Dilip Kumar who had a career spanning over 50 years, Raj Kapoor with 40 years, and front leader Dev Anand with 66 years and still going strong!
Amitabh Bachchan holds the record for the largest number of Filmfare Best Actor awards. He is the winner of three national awards and 12 Filmfare Best Actor awards.