Actor Abhishek Bachchan says he doesn’t look upon films in terms of words like ‘lead actor’ and ‘male solo actor’ and doesn’t consider himself the main lead in his hit films such as ‘Guru’ and ‘Bluffmaster’.
Asked if he has any upcoming projects where he plays the lead, he said: “I hope so. If you have a nice script, I’ll be more than happy to read it. But I didn’t understand your question.” He was speaking at a press conference regarding the success of the film ‘Houseful 3’. When mentioned as a ‘solo actor’, he said: “As the only person in the film? It will be a very boring film.”
When the journalist clarified that he meant ‘male lead’, Abhishek said, “So I act like a female right now or what? I’m not understanding your question.”
Asked about films such as ‘Guru’ and ‘Bluffmaster’, where he was the ‘lead’, Abhishek said: “In ‘Bluffmaster’, I had wonderful co-actors called Riteish Deshmukh and Boman Irani. In ‘Guru’ I had wonderful co-actors like Mithun da (Mithun Chakraborty), Maddy (R. Madhavan), Aishwarya (Rai) and Vidya Balan. What’re you trying to say?”
When told about being a ‘male lead’ in ‘Guru’, he said: “Mithun da and Madhavan were male actors in that as well.”
When told that he was the ‘lead actor’ in these two films, Abhishek finally said: “I don’t think so. I don’t look upon films like that. My definition is slightly different. I believe anybody, no matter how big or small their role, is equally responsible for the film and in the success or the failure. I don’t like to differentiate just based on the size of the role.
“If you look at ‘Housefull’; It’s a wonderful franchise and the most popular character of the ‘Housefull’ franchise is Chunky (Pandey), who shot for just three days in the film. Aakhri Pasta (Chunky’s character) has got the biggest recall in the ‘Housefull’ franchise. So the size of the role shouldn’t matter.”
Abhishek added: “I just feel that every actor should be given the love and respect as his fellow actor. So I have never believed in this word ‘solo male lead’, for me a solo film is when you’re doing it alone; you’re the only person in the film.”Abhishek was nominated for the Filmfare Award Best Actor category for ‘Guru’.