AMITABH- THE ONE MAN WHO HAS NEVER LET ME DOWN! (ON HIS SEVENTY- SECOND BIRTHDAY) BY ALI PETER JOHN I have always tried to understand the strange bond between the living legend Amitabh Bachchan and me. We go back a long way. He started his career with the writer-filmmaker K.A Abbas and I also started with the same great but simple man called Abbas. He called him “Mamujaan” and so did I. He was more than a “Mamujaan” (maternal uncle), he was our “jaan” and he literally gave us new “jaan”. Amitabh took off with his film “Saat Hindustani” while I found my vocation in life learning everything I could from him without caring about what salary he paid me or what I could benefit from him… Amitabh became the star and the mega star and the star of the millennium. I became a journalist and we have been in touch all the time. On the occasion of his seventy- second birthday I remember all the times he has gone out of his way to keep promises he has made to me after I have made a request to him… The first time I asked him for a request to be granted was when I was chosen to be presented with an award named after our guru K.A Abbas. The organizers wanted me to receive the award from the then chief minister, Mr. Manohar Joshi, but I was adamant, I said I would receive this award only at the hands of Amitabh Bachchan. They told me that I would have to talk to Amitabh myself. I did. I spoke to Amitabh and he agreed even though he was very busy. On the morning of the function, I dropped in at “Prateeksha” and was told that he was sleeping. He had attended an awards function the previous night and had made a speech in which he felt he should have mentioned the name of Anil Kapoor. He first went to Anil’s house. They had a meeting and he then drove to the Sun- N- Sand Hotel where a crowd was waiting for him. He came and the atmosphere was never the same till he left. He made a speech praising me as a person and as a journalist and I was thrilled. As a parting shot, he told the audience that he could never understand one thing about me. He said I had never taken notes when talking to him about any subject and was surprised when the article was published without any mistake made by some lapse of my memory and said he would one day ask me the “raaz” about it which made me a little uneasy because I knew that if he ever asked me that question, I would not be able to give him the correct answer because I did not know and still do not know the answer. That morning I was floating, not walking… Years later, I was told to invite him for a party hosted by my company at the then Holiday Inn. It was a time when my parent paper was going hammer and tongs against him because of what was called his being involved in the Bofors guns case. I invited him and he said he had another meeting at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Colaba and he could only try to make it. The party started. Other big stars and filmmakers walked in and everyone was in high spirits, but I had my eyes at the gate of the hall where the party was being held. Some of my colleagues taunted and teased me from time to time, asking me, “kahan gaya tumhara Amitabh Bachchan?” I kept quiet, but some voice within me told me that he would come. At 10 pm sharp I saw a tall figure standing all alone at the gate. I could not believe what I was seeing. It was Amitabh Bachchan himself and the party took a very different colour even with some stars clamoring to be photographed with him and even asking him for autographs… It was one of our awards functions at what was then the Centaur Hotel. Pritish Nandy who had started his own awards had his function the same evening and my bosses felt that all the big stars and especially Amitabh would go to Nandy’s function at The Leela. I was again the target of the barbs of my friends and colleagues. But I don’t know why I kept telling them that he would come. The first of the stars who had attended Nandy’s function rushed to our function and I remember Tanuja the veteran actress saying, “arre, wahaan toh paani bhi nahin peene ko mila”. As the stars came to our function I saw my own hopes about Amitabh coming rising. It was 2 in the night and I still told people to wait because I had faith in Amitabh coming to our function. At 2.30 I saw the van he traveled in those days driving into the gate of the Centaur Hotel. I saw him alighting from it followed by Jaya, Danny Denzongpa and their common friend Romesh Sharma. The party started all over again and lasted till the early hours of the morning… It was Republic Day and also the day when the workers in the press had their annual day. I met Amitabh the previous day and asked him if he could write a message which could be read at the annual day celebrations. He said, “why write, I will come myself”. I couldn’t believe it, but he convinced me that he would come. I told the workers about what had happened between Amitabh and me and their joy knew no bounds. But when the owner of the group of papers I worked for came to know about it, he made a major issue out of it. He told the leaders of the workers that he would certainly not join in the celebrations if Amitabh was coming. It was a result of the ongoing war being waged by the group against Amitabh and his friend, and then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. I did not know what to do. I could not sleep. How would I tell Amitabh that he would have to give up his idea of spending time with the workers? I went to a local telephone booth and called him and before I could say anything, he said, “Ali, I knew this was going to happen. Anyway, you just don’t worry and please give my best wishes to all the workers”… During his three- month long stay at the Breach Candy Hospital where he was fighting a battle against death, I visited the hospital everyday and there were times when I walked back home all alone and after reaching home I sat before a photograph of his and said, “No, God, you cannot allow this man to die”. I kept repeating the same line hundreds of times till I fell asleep. I was there when Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India herself especially flew down to the Breach Candy Hospital to see him and the large crowd outside were sure that something serious had happened and some even spread the word that he was dead. The fact that he came back to life after conquering death is a part of the myth he has now become… A group of young boys came to me from a faraway place called Mulund. They said they were a part of a coaching school called Avi’s Classes and it was the tenth anniversary of the Classes. They wanted Amitabh to be the chief guest at the function. I went looking for Amitabh on Christmas Eve and the function was to be held on Christmas Day. I knew that it was impossible but seeing the faces of those young boys I decided to try. He was shooting in the quarries at Chandivali. I luckily had an autorickshaw driver who was a die-hard fan of Amitabh and when I told him I was going to see Amitabh he forgot all about his business and stayed with me till I had accomplished my feat. I had to just tell Amitabh about the function, he asked me for the details and said, “Go home and tell Khare, my secretary about the function”. I did as I was told. The boys from Mulund came to my house at 9 in the morning dressed in their best clothes and in an old Maruti van. I reached “Prateeksha”. He was sleeping, but he got my message and within ten minutes he was down dressed in a white pyjama and kurta and wearing ordinary sandals. He said sorry about the delay and asked me where my car was. I looked at him helplessly and showed him the van in which the boys were waiting. He just got into a Maruti800 and said, “Let’s go”. He was at the wheels himself and was driving at break neck speed and the security men found it difficult to keep up with his speed and whenever they came close to the Maruti, they asked me where I was taking him. We reached Mulund and there were thousands of students, teachers and parents waiting for him. He made a beautiful speech about how it was very important to start any function or even a celebration in the morning which was the best time of the day. The function ended and I could see the whole crowd breaking into a dance in celebration. He was whistling and humming some songs and was in a very good mood till we got stuck up in a huge traffic jam. That was the beginning of one of my most tense times. He suddenly said, “I am in trouble, Ali, please call my security people and ask them to clear the traffic so that I can move fast. I have had an attack of asthama”. The rest of the drive was like a scene from one of his films. He was driving like a man who had lost control over his movements. We somehow reached “Prateeksha” and he got out of the car and collapsed. I was never so happy and never so scared in just one morning and one moment… It was just after he had resumed shooting after that near fatal accident with Prakash Mehra’s “Sharaabi”. A doctor- friend who had previously asked me to bring actors like Sunil Dutt and Dharmendra to inaugurate different wings of his hospital now wanted Amitabh to inaugurate the I.C. U of his hospital in Four Bungalows. I was hesitant, but the doctor was almost “dying”. Amitabh was shooting at Film City. I told him about the doctor’s request and he said, “come to my Madh Island Bungalow” (he and his family were living in a bungalow at Madh on the advice of doctors). A group of doctors followed me all the way to Madh. It was Ramola, the wife of his brother Ajitabh who saw me first and asked me what I wanted. I told her my story and she said, “He has come home at 4 in the morning. How can you be so cruel to wake him up at this time? You go and sit in that chair, I cannot help you.” I had never known her and felt desperate till I saw Jaya coming down the stairs. She saw me and asked, “Ali, what are you doing here at this time?” I told her the reason. She went up and Amitabh was down within fifteen minutes again dressed in white pyjama and kurta and again asking me about my car and before I could answer him, he said, “it is Sunday and I have given a holiday to the drivers. Anyway get into that white Ambassador. He was again at the wheels and our long drive began with the doctors trying to keep up with his speed. We reached somewhere near Four Bungalows and we could see thousands of people lined up all along the road and the crowd kept growing larger as we reached the hospital. He was angry because he had told the doctor not to publicize the event but the doctor in his enthusiasm had spread the word about his coming all over Andheri. Amitabh sought the help of the police from D. N Nagar Police Station and somehow managed to get into the hospital while I was flung into the stampeding crowd which almost crushed me and I was lucky to escape alive. The next morning he called me and said “kamaal ke aadmi ho, mujhe chhod diya aur khud bhaag gaye”. How could I tell him what I had to go through to stay alive...? It was one more Diwali and I had decided to bring out a special issue of my magazine in which I would take some big stars to different hospitals to spread light in the lives of patients. I thought of asking Amitabh to take a round of the same Breach Candy Hospital where he lived and died so many times before he finally lived. He immediately agreed and visited almost all the patients and met some of the staff who was on duty when he was a patient… I can go on and on about these kinds of stories, but I must end with this one. I had tried my best to get a road in Juhu named after our guru, K.A Abbas. I knew and believed that a function like this could not be complete without the presence of Amitabh. I told him about the programme and how his name had made the corporator and the entire team working with him work with double the speed to get the road and the marble plaque ready in just two days. He was very busy shooting at Royal Palms beyond Film City. He managed to make time and reached Juhu and the venue exactly at 10.30 which was the time I had asked him to come. He first walked the same way he had walked to reach Abbas Sahab’s office on the fifth floor in a building without a lift when he came to sign “Saat Hindustani”, his first film. It was like a walk down memory lane for him. He later unveiled the plaque together with Rishi Kapoor who represented the Kapoor family because Abbas Sahab and Raj Kapoor had a very strong association as a writer and director team… I succeeded in asking him to sound the clapper board for the muhurat of a film being made by one of my friends. We were travelling in his van (he and Manmohan Desai used the same kind of vans and almost with the same colour and just one digit different from the other as the numbers of the vans). It was like floating on water while we travelled and I was surprised to see his van which was like a well-furnished one room apartment. It was lunch time and he put forward his lunch box and asked me, “Ali, will you share my lunch?” I looked at what he was eating, there were only some boiled sprouts and pulses and he continued, “I am sure, this is not your idea of having lunch”… It is not the same any more. Amitabh has grown into the much more and bigger star than he was when he was young. He has absolutely no time, but I still tried to get him to be the chief guest at an awards function where he was to present a major award to Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar. I had to again talk to him and finally get the green signal from him to attend the same function where Lataji was to present the same award to him. He came with Jaya but Lataji could not make it because of her health problems but he never showed his disappointment. He was happy talking to Lataji on the phone and received the award from the Showman, Subhash Ghai… I am now so acutely aware of his fighting for time that I take a long time to think before I can ask him or request him for any favour for me or for anyone else. In fact when I last called him to write a piece for my magazine, he said in a message, “I have absolutely no time. I am very busy”. Which other star can or could be as busy as he is at seventy- two?
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 12:26:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015