Big B recalls Vijay Dinanath Chauhan

The ‘recap’ promotional campaign for Bbuddhha Hoga Terra Baap that is woven around dialogue from previous Amitabh Bachchan starrers that projected him as an ‘angry young man’ has generated a lot of interest. The actor, long-distance from London where he’s vacationing with wife Jaya, claims related stories


hat the marketing team took just two days to conceive it.

It has sparked off memories of the original Agneepath with the classic line, ‘Vijay Dinanath Chauhan... poora naam’ at a time when Karan Johar’s Agneepath remake with Hrithik Roshan is in progress. Was it a deliberate decision to take it on?

“When the original film is mine, why would I deliberate if I wanted to refer to it again? The deliberation is for those who want to remake it,” Bachchan argues. “Since the earlier Agneepath is the property of Dharma Productions, they have the right to do what they wish to with it. My contribution was creative and that will always remain mine since the director and producer weren’t involved with designing and enacting the role.”

Rumour has it that Abhishek was supposed to play Vijay in the Agneepath remake, but according to Bachchan, his son was never approached for the film: “That was pure media conjecture converted into fact. They started believing their own cooked-up story. Had Abhishek received the offer, he would never have done the film.”

Amitabh bachchanBbuddhha Hoga Terra Baap has also borrowed lines from his other cult movies like Shahenshah and Deewar. What made them zero in on Main aaj bhi pheke hue paise nahi uthata when Deewar had the unforgettable phrase Mere paas maa hai?

“That was Shashiji’s (Shashi Kapoor) line, so picking it as mine wouldn’t have been legitimate. The dialogue of Deewar has been with us for so long that choosing this line was not difficult.”

With the film lining up for a July 1 release, any other promotional ploys coming up? “Ploys are never disclosed till they mature, you’ll have to wait for them to unfold,” he says, adding, “Commercially, we are in profit even before the release because we’ve made the film on a modest budget of Rs 10 crore. Satellite, audio and other internals have covered our cost. Whatever comes in after will be the cream or icing on the cake.”

Can the angry young man of the ’70s return when he is almost touching 70? In a year of superheroes will he be one too? “We are not trying to create an illusion of the ’70s with someone who’s almost 70,” says Big B.

“We are merely saying in the tag line ‘He is back ... And he is angry.’ And I don’t know what you mean by superhero, for me every hero in every film is a super hero.”