MR.BACHCHAN,YOU WILL NOT STOP FASCINATING ME

Ali Peter John

Some relationships I have made in the film industry are certainly stronger than the relationships I have had with my closest relatives. And to think of it ,I have spent fifty five of the best years of my life in this industry which I have loved with all my heart in spite of all its flaws and pitfalls. And if I have thought of seniors like K.A.Abbas, Dev Anand,Dilip Kumar and Sunil Dutt as father-figures and Amitabh Bachchan has given me all the reason to believe that he is more like a friend or an elder brother to me and Rishi Kapoor, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan have been like younger brothers and friends .But ,if there is one man who has always stood by me like a tall rock of support at all times, It has undoubtedly been the star of the millennium,Amitabh Bachchan, whose rise and rise I have had at the good fortune to be a close witness to …

Amitabh was going through very gruelling time when he was embroiled in the Bofors scandal. I think I was the only journalist of the Indian Express Group who tried my best to support him even though my management threatened me with action. I was writing for “Screen”and I had an editor who published what I wrote about Amitabh without asking too many questions.Amitabh once called me to “Prateeksha”, his residence before “Jalsa”.The time for our meeting was fixed for five thirty in the evening. I knew about his passion for time and rushed to be in time, it started raining very heavily and I didn’t even have an umbrella ,as usual. I was drenched to every bone in my body when I reached “Prateeksha “and to add to my misery, I saw the mighty Amitabh Bachchan standing outside the gate of “Prateeksha “with an umbrella and another umbrella in his hand.He was waiting for me and there were at least five hundred people out side his bungalow getting wet and still looking at Amitabh as if they were looking at God who had come down from heaven. He showed his concern for me and took me inside and made sure that I was dried up by two of his men ,offered me a hot cup of coffee and some snacks and we got down to talking about Bofors and didn’t stop for the next two hours and he kept looking at me for the umpteenth time perhaps wondering why I was not taking any notes on a very important and delicate issue like Bofors. It was nearing eight when we finished talking and he came out to see me off and the crowd had swelled. I started walking and the crowd looked at me disappointed and in one voice said, “saala faaltu hai”.What they said didn’t matter to me, what Amitabh had done mattered and I walked home all the way in a daze…

A socio-cultural organization from Bombay, Sahyog Foundation, headed by Dr Ram Jawhrani decided to present me with its first K.A.Abbas award for Best Film Journalist and it had planned to Invite then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr.Manohar Joshi to present me with the award. I expressed my disappointment and told Mr.Jawhrani that I would not like to accept an award in the name of K.A.Abbas from a politician. He was both surprised and shocked and asked me to make my own arrangements. I went to Amitabh and explained the situation to him and he was only too glad to be present at the award function which was held at the Sun n Sand hotel in Juhu .Amitabh had won an award at the Filmfare function the previous night and had made a slight mistake when it came to mentioning the name of Anil Kapoor.He told me he would have to go to Anil’s house to apologize to him and than come to my function. He came, they saw ,he spoke about me and he talked about how I didn’t take notes and didn’t carry a tape recorder and wrote exactly what he had spoken in the most difficult interviews and said that he would like to know the secret about how I did it.I have never let anyone know the secret ,not even Amitabh because I don’t think there is a need to when God is involved….

It was a grand and important political meeting at” Prateeksha “,
where some of the top most political leaders of India were present one afternoon .I was also present, invited by Amitabh. It was the time when Dr Harivanshrai Bachchan’s autobiography in English, “In The Afternoon Of Life “was released. I happened to mention it to Amitabh and he went up to the first floor and came down with his “Babuji”in a wheel-chair and with a copy of his autobiography in his hands. He led the wheel chair towards me and introduced “Babuji” to me as his “dear friend “and asked him to autograph the copy of the book for me. I couldn’t believe that the great father and his son were standing with me and the illustrious poet was signing his autobiography for me.He was old and sick, but his hand was very steady. I still have the copy of the book with me ….

I wanted a road in Juhu next to the house of Abbas Sahab to be named after him and I had told Sunil Dutt about it .He told me such things were done by the Municipal Corporators and put me on to the local corporator Mr.Ashok Bhau Jadhav who was an autorickshaw driver once. It took him one and a half year to even know how to pronounce the name of Abbas Sahab .When he was making it too difficult, I went to Amitabh and asked him to commit a date and time when he would come and unveil the plaque declaring the road open.He gave me a date. I told Mr.Jadhav that Amitabh Bachchan was coming to declare the road named after Abbas Sahab open and the road which was not leading anywhere for almost two years was completed in three days.A grand function was organized. Sunil Dutt, Amitabh and Rishi Kapoor among many others were present as Dutt Sahab and Amitabh unveiled the plaque right outside the building in which Abbas Sahab lived for more than sixty years, paying a royal rent of hundred rupees a month. That morning Amitabh found time to go to the place where he had met Abbas Sahab for the first time on the fifth floor in his simple office where Abbas Sahab had signed him for “Saat Hindustani”for which he was paid five thousand rupees for the entire film and had to live in a dormitory sharing it with Abbas Sahab and the entire unit for forty days in Goa…

How can I forget those dark days when Amitabh was battling death in that room in the Breach Candy Hospital and I was one of the thousands of people outside the hospital praying for him ? We ,the media which was not as scattered as it is today where issued bulletins about his health at 2.pm every day and it use to be mostly a very depressing report.The complications kept multiplying instead of growing lesser and new complications like peritonitis and myasthenia gravis were discovered and there were times when he was given up as a lost case,especially on August 2 when he was declared “clinically dead”and his friends, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra,Yash Johar and S.Raamnathan were asked to make arrangements for his funeral,but the fighter fought back and survived. Panic had struck the whole country when the then Prime Mrs.Indira Gandhi flew down to Bombay by a special flight only to see him and flew back to Delhi. He came back home and was only a shadow of himself and was not fit to resume work…

It was a miracle when he started shooting from where he had stopped after he was knocked out on the sets of “Coolie” and he was back at work with his new film,”Sharaabi”.His doctors had advised him and his family to stay away from Bombay and so they lived in a bungalow near Madh Island. Amitabh was shooting in Film City for “Sharaabi”.A doctor who had treated my daughter wanted Amitabh to inaugurate his new ICU.I told him that I would only introduce him to Amitabh and I did just that, but I didn’t know that Amitabh was going to take him seriously.Amitabh asked me to come to his Madh Island Bungalow at 9.am the next morning. A whole lot of doctors followed me from Andheri and I was in a rickety old Maruti van .It was Ramola ,Ajitabh’s wife who met me and literally fired me for being mean to Amitabh for disturbing him as he had come from shooting at 5 o’clock in the morning and was sleeping. Jaya came down and was surprised to see me and asked me if “Amit “had asked me to see him and when I said yes , she went and woke up Amitabh and he was down within fifteen minutes. He asked me, “Ali,where is your car ?”I showed him the van in which I had come. He didn’t waste a minute and got into a Maruti 800 and asked me to get in and we were off to four bungalows where the doctor’s hospital was. He had requested the doctor not to have a big crowd ,but the star- crazy doctor seemed to have invited the whole world and Amitabh was irritated for a while .He reached the hospital and fired the police for not being able to maintain the crowd and within minutes I was thrown into the crowd and had run for my life and saw Amitabh only the next day…

Some young men came to me from Kalyan. They said it was the annual day of Avi’s Classes which was celebrating its annual at Kalidas Hall in Mulund and they wanted Amitabh as the chief guest.I took an auto and went deep into the quarries of Chandivali where Amitabh was shooting. I had to “bribe”the autowala by telling him that I would take a photograph of his with Amitabh and he was willing to even go to Timbuktoo. I told Amitabh about my mission. The function was on the following day which was Christmas. He hardly took a minute say yes and he asked me to go to “Prateeksha” and enter the name of the function in his diary. The next day it was the same story. The organisers had sent only one old car and they were six men.Amitabh came down and again and got into a Maruti 800 and drove through a prohibited road while his security guards kept screaming at me asking me where I was taking their Sahab .We were at the hall fifteen minutes before time and there was an Amitabh Bachchan festival in Mulund and all the surrounding areas for more than two hours. On our way back there was a huge traffic jam and Amitabh told me, “Ali ,I am in trouble, can you please call my security man ?”I was in a terrible fix .I couldn’t get out of the car. I couldn’t let anyone know that “the Amitabh Bachchan “was driving the Maruti 800.I some how caught the attention of his guards and till today I don’t know how they made way for his car to move out of that jam .He drove like a mad man and reached “Prateeksha” and collapsed. He had a major asthma attack. The marigold flowers in the hundreds of garlands presented to him at the function had given him a strong allergy which had led to the attack. I had heard of a similar attack and how he had tried to jump off the terrace of the Sea Rock hotel and how Shashi Kapoor had saved him in the nick of time or …

Amitabh must have attended at least twenty two functions on my requests, besides the events organized by “Screen “which a part of the Indian Express which was sometimes deadly against him and he often said he came because of me and I have never been able to thank him enough…

It was a very different scene when I went to wish on his seventy fifth birthday in his office, “Janak “there were hundreds of media people. There were scary-looking bouncers and I was asked to send a message to him through a PRO called Parag Desai. I never knew things would come to such a sorry pass .

Will those glorious days when everything was so simple ever come back ? I don’t know.I only know that I lived through a time which will certainly not come back again.