"Dr" Amitabh Bachchan speaks to Subhash K Jha

Q: The de Montford university at Leicester has conferred a doctorate on you. How does Dr Bachchan sound to you?
A: 'Dr Bachchan' was my father ! A Ph.D in English Literature from Cambridge, on WB Yeats and Occultism, in 1954, perhaps the first Indian to get this distinction from that University. That achievement shall remain embedded in me always. None of my achievements, honors and degrees can and will ever match that.

The Jhansi University conferred a doctorate on me the year before last, De Montford does one this month and at the end of the year the Delhi University wishes an honorary doctorate for me too.

I am of course overwhelmed and deeply humbled by this recognition and I express my extreme gratitude to each of these prestigious institutions, but truly feel unworthy of them. My contribution, if at all there is any, shall always pale in front of my father's.

Q: You come from a family with an acute literary/ scholarly bent of mind. How much of an academic are you at heart? Do you get time to read a lot? Who are your favourite authors?
A: I am an acute failure in this department, as I am in various others. I am a graduate in science and have lived and been brought up in an atmosphere of poetry and literature and academics due to my father.

Whatever I have, which isn't much really, is all that I have imbibed or accumulated because of my proximity to my parents.

There has not been any concerted effort to follow or pursue academics. There is a deep desire to do so. But how and when, I just do not know.

Q: You're just being your over-modest self.
A: I'm serious. The genes reflect in the progeny. My niece, Nilima Bachchan, Ajitabh's eldest, has just done a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from UK. If there is a genuine Dr Bachchan after my father it is her. My other niece, Namrata is a painter and writer.

My daughter Shweta, is a voracious reader and a great mind. From our side of the family she is perhaps the only informal academic.

But I get no time to read. I collect the latest books and browse through them and store them for a rainy day, hoping that they shall give me company when I am confined to a chair or a bed. But I am a bad reader. I am presently content with my fathers books and his wisdom.

Q: Do you think formal education is a necessary qualification for an actor? You've been to college. Mr Dilip Kumar hasn't.
A: I think a formal education is necessary for an individual pursuing any vocation. Formal education just does not bring in academic knowledge.

It brings with it curriculum, discipline, forebearence, competitiveness, understanding, vision and so many other qualities that are so essential for everyday existence in a normal society.

My days in college may not have a direct reflection on my present profession. But I cannot wish away the other aspects of its benefits to me as an individual. An actor's performance will always betray his inner build -up as a human.

Dilip Saab may not have gone to college. But can you really doubt the reflection of the quality of his inner self in his performances. That he developed these qualities independently and not through an educational institution, gives so much more credence to his unassailable genius.

Q: How much did you stress on Abhishek and Shweta's education?
A: We stressed a lot. But in the end our bottom line was, educate yourself yes, but educate yourself to be a good human first.