Abhishek Bachchan made his acting debut in Refugee in 2000, opposite Kareena Kapoor. The debut was a big affair, considering that he was Amitabh Bachchan’s son. However, not many might know that Abhishek had penned a script for his own debut with the help of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra which Amitabh Bachchan badly rejected. Speaking in a roundtable with Galatta Plus, Abhishek recalled he and Rakeysh wrote the film called Samjhauta Express which was intended to launch Abhishek as an actor and Rakeysh as a director.
The duo, who have been friends for decades now, decided to write the script because no one was ready to launch Abhishek as an actor and Rakeysh — who was an ad filmmaker — was not being encouraged to make films. “I was sitting with my friend Rakeysh Mehra and I said, ‘Yaar, it has been two years and I can’t get a film and I am getting really demoralised.’ He said, ‘I also want to direct a film but they all want me to direct ads.’ So I said, ‘I’ll act for you.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll direct you.’ We wrote a script called Samjhauta Express,” he said.
Abhishek revealed that the film revolved around a terrorist who comes in search of his father who had been taken away from him as a child. The actor revealed that the duo had also started prep for the film, with Rakeysh doing look tests while Abhishek grew out his hair and beard. They then decided to pitch it to Amitabh Bachchan for his production house.
“Anybody who has narrated a film to my father knows it is a scary thing because he doesn’t react. He just sits there quietly and listens. So we were prepared for that. I remember we narrated the whole script and there was silence afterwards. That’s when I realised Rakeysh is the world’s worse narrator so just read the script, never get a narration from him, he will confuse you,” Abhishek said.
After a long silence, Amitabh looked at them and said, “Boys, bahut hi bakwaas script hai.” He added that Amitabh asked him to ‘get out.’ “We got really demoralised. Rakeysh went off and he was very upset and I think he took it rather badly and opened a bottle of rather strong stuff and he penned down something. Next day he called me and said, ‘I have written something and I am vengence writing. I’ve written a script called Good vs Evil.’ Which then went on to become Aks. He wrote it as kunus,” Abhishek revealed.
Abhishek went on to make his acting debut in Refugee while Rakeysh debuted as a director with Aks. They worked together in Delhi 6 (2009).
Comments
0 comment