Abhishek Bachchan: Slapstick comedy is unbelievably tough

Mumbai, July 11

Actor Abhishek Bachchan has tried many genres in his career, but finds slapstick comedy unbelievably tough.

He has done intense roles in films like “Yuva”, “Refugee” and “Guru”. He also explored comedy with “Bol Bachchan” and “Happy New Year”.

Talking about his role in “Bol Bachchan” and exploring slapstick comedy for the first time, he said: “Slapstick comedy is unbelievably tough and my huge respect to the artistes who manage to pull it off effortlessly. A lot of them were in the film with us in ‘Bol Bachchan’.”

“Comedy is all about the timing of your co-stars. It doesn’t matter how great an actor you are, if the actor opposite you is not reciprocating the timing, the way it should be then your performance is going to fall flat. You are least dependent on your talent and most dependent on your co-stars and that makes comedy all the more challenging. ‘Bol Bachchan’ was a challenge for me. There were times where I was doubtful and I actually felt that Rohit (Rohit Shetty) might replace me because I wasn’t able to understand the level of energy that he required,” he added.

Sharing the first euphoric moment in his career, Abhishek said: “It was August 27, 2004 when ‘Dhoom’ released and the verdict was out. By then I was preempting failure. Adi (Aditya Chopra) sat me down and said – ‘You just gave your first hit’. I vividly remember, the first thing I did was gasp for breath and a relief.”

“Before the euphoria, it was a sense of relief. It was an amazing feeling after a film of yours does well, the instant energy that comes back to you as an actor is great,” he said during a conversation on IMDb’s “On the Scene”.