His public image is that of a person bigger than life, but at an Idea Exchange with The Indian Express, Amitabh Bachchan has said that “fear” of another bankruptcy was one of the reasons the family felt the need to maintain such high visibility.

“We as a family are still haunted by the grave depression and the virtual bankruptcy we have experienced in our lifetime. We believe in continuing to work. We are afraid, what if those days are upon us again?” he said during an interaction with Express employees at Express Towers in Mumbai.

Bachchan spoke frankly about the time his company, ABCL, nearly went bust, and instead of declaring it bankrupt, “and not being able to face the friends in the fraternity I owed money to”, he decided to battle it out. “Now all my earnings, from TV, films and promotions, go to ABCL, and we are finally in the black. It was after eight years that I was able to announce a dividend at this year’s AGM,” he said.

Bachchan spoke on a wide range of topics, including acting, the dilemmas and pressures of being in the public eye, as well as his fear of getting into “controversial causes”.

“I admire people like Naseeruddin Shah or Shabana Azmi who stand up for the sake of the art they believe in, and the causes they stand for,” Bachchan said. “But I am not that sort of a person. Yes, I do think I should stand up for causes I believe in, but I fear sometimes that as I am an artist first, my attempts to associate myself with causes must not be misconstrued and misinterpreted... I have, therefore, stuck to things like polio, AIDS and global warming.”

... contd.