I get angry, but don’t show it: Amitabh Bachchan (Interview)

NEW DELHI - Amitabh Bachchan has learnt to live with controversies. But India’s biggest star admits they sometimes get under his skin — and when that happens he says he takes care not to show his irritation, particularly before the media.

“For celebrities, when you create a controversy, it happens and even when you don’t create one, it still happens. Like if I sneeze, it can cause a controversy; if I don’t, then also it causes one,” Bachchan told IANS in an exclusive interview.

“We (celebrities) have to live with that (controversies). I have accepted that controversies are bound to happen with me. I do get angry about it at times but we don’t let it show - not in front of the media at least,” added the 66-year-old thespian who will soon be seen as host of the third season of the reality show “Bigg Boss” that features a bunch of celebrities locked into a house.

The subject of many controversies, big and small, Bachchan seems to often vent his ire in his blog, which he labels a “revelation”.

The blog - www.bigb.bigadda.com - has become almost an obsession, says the star candidly.

“It (my blog) has been a great revelation. It’s a medium where I can talk to myself. It has now become almost like an obsession and it’s not so much because I want to express myself but the fact that I better express myself now there are hundreds of people who wait to read what I’m going to do, what I am thinking and then they comment on it,” he said.

He added that he would be going back to update his blog as soon as the interviews with the media were over.

Bachchan, whose forthcoming projects include Sujoy Ghosh’s “Aladin”, R. Balakrishna’s eagerly-awaited role-reversal drama “Paa” and Leena Yadav’s “Teen Patti”, was in the capital for the launch of “Bigg Boss” that goes on the air Sunday.

“I had been getting offers from various channels. We had many advance talks with some of them but, for some reason, either I didn’t like it or they couldn’t conceptualise something for me. Then ‘Bigg Boss’ came along, so I said ‘yes’,” said TV’s newest “pop philosopher”.

Ask him how this whole concept of being a “pop philosopher” emerged, the actor said: “This word has been created by the channel and I am partially to blame for it. When we were in talks for the show, I kept asking Colors officials about what it is that may be different from what you have been doing.

“It intrigued me for very long as to why a human being behaves as he does, what’s it that instigates him to behave in a certain manner? I thought it would be interesting to know all that and it may interest the people who will watch the show.”

Though Bachchan will be seen twice a week as the show host, he is not open to the idea of being locked in the “Bigg Boss” house.

“I would hate to be in the ‘Bigg Boss’ house. How can you be cut off for three months without any newspapers and mobiles? With no knowledge of what time it is since there are no clocks?” he said in awe.

Apart from Big B hosting the show, the channel has also made changes in the selection format. This time, viewers were given a chance to vote for those whom they want to see in the “Bigg Boss” house.

Asked who he would personally like to see on the show and pat he responded: “Nobody. I don’t want anybody to go in there.”

(Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at radhika.b@ians.in)