All eyes on a film legend

2002-04-14 17:16

Margaret von Klemperer

Pietermaritzburg - South Africans are low-key about celebrity and glamour. We seldom see it and don't believe in overdoing the homage when we do.

But this week, celebrity glitz came to Durban in the form of Amitabh Bachchan, the towering figure of Indian film who was voted "the Greatest Star of the Millennium" in a 1999 BBC poll, who is immortalised in a waxwork at Madame Tussauds and receives the kind of adulation from fans that Hollywood stars would hardly dare dream of.

The fans were there to meet his plane when he touched down in the city and Nilesh Singh of Video Vision estimates the crowd who turned up in the rain at the Pavilion on Wednesday night for Bachchan's live appearance at a hastily arranged concert to be 25 000, more than many an overseas star has pulled in on formal tours.

And the moment we arrived at his Durban hotel on Thursday morning for a pre-arranged interview, we knew this was something different.

A phenomenon

The lobby was thronged with hotel staff and security men while women, dressed to the nines, were hanging around hopefully. Then Singh, unflappable and courteous as ever, whisked us off in the lift to the top of the hotel.

There was a room to sit in, tea, coffee and cold drinks - and several large, polite security guards, all with earpieces in their ears and some with guns in the waistbands, making sure we were not going to show signs of aberrant fan behaviour.

One of the guards told us that a party of Bachchan groupies, complete with small children in pushchairs and who we had seen in the passage, had flown in from Dubai and had been at the hotel since the day before. They were waiting in the hope of getting a photograph of themselves with Bachchan.

Asked why on earth they wouldn't have taken the easier trip from Dubai to Mumbai, the guard said they probably felt they had a better chance of getting close to the great man this way. We were in the presence of a phenomenon.

Bachchan is in South Africa to publicise his latest film, Aanken (Eyes), and has been attending premieres in major centres, interacting with fans and meeting the press. As we waited for him to appear, word came down the passage that he was on his way. Everyone stood.

After recording a brief promotional message for Lotus FM, Bachchan turned his attention to us. Close up, he looks older than in photographs - he will turn 60 later this year - and drawn and tired after his non-stop round of appearances.

Easy-going celebrity

Casually dressed in baseball cap and sweatshirt, he denied that his schedule was too hectic, or that the passionate attention of his fans, both at home in India and when he is abroad, is something that he ever resents.

"I do get time to myself, you know," he said. "And yes, I can walk down the road at home without being mobbed."

Bachchan is an imposing figure, surprisingly sombre but relaxed and polite.

An easy-going celebrity, he seems perfectly happy to be rushed from one interview to the next and to be photographed with reporters, photographers and any member of the public who can wriggle through the security cordon.

In Aanken, Bachchan plays a bank manager. "My character has built up his bank from scratch but he has a temper and gets physical if he catches his staff out in any indiscipline. So he gets thrown out and decides to teach the bank a lesson. He's a bank manager turned bank robber," Bachchan explains.

The film has already been released in India and although box office figures are not yet available, Bachchan says it will do best in urban centres. He describes the plot as "slightly novel by the standard of most Indian films", with not too much romance. But Bachchan's following allows him to take a few risks.

Back in 1969, his career began with action films but doing his own stunts led to his being seriously injured on the set of Coolie. He has appeared as action man, romantic lead, dramatic hero and also in comedy. "Indian actors have to be proficient in all those areas," he says.

Unique style

The man hailed as King of Bollywood dislikes the Bollywood tag - a contraction of Bombay Hollywood. "Indian films have a unique style and structure which has been with us for almost 100 years," he says.

"Our format is different from that of Hollywood and we have relied on projecting the ethos and culture of our country. And most of our filmmaking has been inspired by our great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana."

Bachchan defends Indian cinema against accusations that its films are not realistic by saying it developed as an entity for entertainment, not for realism or to educate. "That's what the state looks after," he says. "The average Indian is not wealthy enough for high entertainment. Television came late to the country; there is minimal theatre and so cinema has become the only respite for a large and diverse audience."

He puts the current trend where Indian films are growing in popularity in mainstream theatres outside the sub-continent down to the growing Asian population all over the world. "They want to have contact with their roots through cinema. They aren't satisfied with videos or pirated DVDs. And then the locals who mix with Asian communities get interested in the cinema as well."

Besides his film work, Bachchan presents the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?, hugely popular in India, at least partly because of the fame of the presenter. "It's very different from film," he says. "More ad lib. And it's a great opportunity to meet people, the contestants. It breaks my heart to see them almost win and then lose."

And then our time is up. As we leave, I ask the guards how many of them are on duty, guarding Bachchan. "We can't tell you that," they say, gently shooing us down the passage. But one offers us a sop for not answering my question: "When it comes to dealing with people, I'd put him in the same class as Madiba," he says.

Down in the lobby, the Dubai party is still there. My guess is that by the time the Superstar of the Millennium flew out, they would have the pictures they wanted. Bachchan knows how to keep the legions of fans happy, and quite genuinely seems to want to do so.

- The Witness