'Raavan’s violent response destroyed me'

He's currently riding the Bol Bachchan wave but Abhishek Bachchan isn't afraid to introspect. In a freewheeling chat, the actor looks back at his career, his flops and the lessons he has learnt. He admits that the failure of Raavan destroyed him and that it took him an year to bounce back. Excerpts:

So all set to enter the 100 crore club with Bol Bachchan?
We still have some way to go before the magic figure. You know, 100 crore is just a term that is used these days, its kind of replaced the silver jubilee term. At the end of the day, figures don't matter. As long as the audience loves the film, actors are happy. Ajay & I were joking the other day that there isn't a special club where we will go and have coffee now. It's business as usual.

Your dance performance has really got the town talking. It was a nice surprise to see you go all out in that sequence. What went into it?
Yes, it was a very important sequence. Rohit (Shetty) told me to be absolutely besharm, to go all out. He said that if I hold back even 1 %, the sequence would collapse. So I had copious amount of coffee and just went all out. Thankfully it worked. I saw the reactions in the cinema halls when I went for my rounds with Rohit and I must confess seeing the audience enjoy the performance made me very happy. Once a lady had slapped me in a cinema hall after the screening of Sharaarat. She had told me that I'm insulting my family by acting so to see the audience go crazy and chant my name in the same cinema hall, felt very nice indeed.

There is a certain swagger in you when you perform a comedic role, like it was in Dostana. Is it because it comes easy to you?
I don't think I have a swagger. It's just that I enjoy comedy. People have appreciated me in the genre but that doesn't mean that I can do it in my sleep. I work hard on getting the timing right. It's just that people don't see the process. As actors we have to be like ducks, paddle crazily under water but maintain a calm exterior. On screen, the performance should just flow. I'm glad people feel like that when I do comedy.

... contd.

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