Big B wants to usher in quiet 68th birthday with family

NEW DELHI - The celebrations for his birthday began almost a month in advance with his big win at the National Awards. But megastar Amitabh Bachchan would like to spend his 68th birthday Monday quietly in his den even as he mulls new moves like copyrighting his voice to prevent misuse.

I am going to be at home Ill be spending it with family, Amitabh, who has done close to 200 films and won four National Awards, told IANS in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

The star’s son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya are in South Korea but will be back in time for his birthday.

Big B, as he is fondly called, proved his invincible mettle yet again when he won the national honour last month as the best actor for portraying a 13-year-old progeria patient in AB Corps Paa. And bouquets of congratulations for the star havent stopped coming since.

Rumours were rife that he would host a special party on his birthday to which he said: That whole news about some kind of celebration is wrongly reported.

Adding to his happiness will be the fourth season of quiz show “Kaun Banega Crorepati” that will go on air on Sony TV coinciding with his birthday Monday.

Reports also suggest that the channel has arranged for a birthday bash for the sexagenarian at the JW Marriott hotel in Mumbai.

I am not sure what the channel wants me to do. They want me to cut a cake or something like that because they just want to be a part of my birthday so thats fine. I may go out and cut a cake or something like that.

But generally I remain at home, I meet the family, be with them and yes if there are people who want to come and see me, then I go out and meet them, said Amitabh in his signature calm demeanour.

Asked how different it would be at 68, he said: Well, every year is different. What one can one say - Ill be completing 68 and stepping into 69. Its been 41 years in the industry. Its a long time.

That makes up for good fodder for an autobiography and why not - his regular blog updates are testimony to the fact that he is a prolific writer but Amitabh says he wont ever wield the pen for a memoir.

No, No, No. I am incapable of writing a biography. Blog is something I casually do and now I do Twitter and the voice blog but in any case I dont think there is anything worthwhile in my life to be written about.

Id rather live with my fathers (legendary poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan) biography which I think is really one of the best that Ive seen. Id rather live with that than write my own, he replied.

Talk of Big B and what hits the mind is his rich reverberating baritone voice - that was once rejected by the All India Radio but is now the bread-and-butter of mimics. But Amitabh soon plans to draw a line here with legal help.

I was not aware of this so there was a lot of corruption. Voice mimics used to use voices and commercialise it. I think there are laws within the country perhaps inspired by some laws in the West where copyrighting and getting your attributes registered (is in practice) so that they cannot misuse it. I am in the process of doing that, he said with the bass in his voice taking a mellow turn.

With a style that is classic and still rakishly flamboyant, this legend hopes to turn a new leaf everyday.

So far as acting goes, he will be seen in Rajkumar Santoshis Power, Puri Jagannath’s next, Prakash Jha’s “Aarakshan” and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s production too.

(Robin Bansal can be contacted at robin.b@ians.in)