Amitabh Bachchan talks about his health, new age directors and more...

Amitabh Bachchan is busy promoting his upcoming film Prakash Jha's Satyagraha. During a media interaction in a suburban hotel, he delves upon his B-Town outing after a hiatus.

You have a film releasing after a long break. Are you signing fewer films of late?
I am. I had a surgery and that's why the break. Besides, I'm doing KBC as well and I have been shooting all along. But all is well on the health front now.


Prakash Jha is known to shoot his films in the hinterlands. How difficult was the shoot?
We've been fortunate as we did a majority of our shoot in Bhopal which is a wonderful place. It is a very welcoming city. The crowd wasn't a problem either. They were helpful and well mannered. They didn't make any interferences.


Your last film with Prakash Jha did not do well and yet you agreed to be part of his next...
I don't think it's a correct assessment. We all are hungry for good work and we work with everybody. Everybody faces failure and success this is not the criteria to do films.

Any work that doesn't get appreciation results in disappointment but then you strive harder the next time to make up for the lost opportunities. I signed Satyagraha for the sheer joy of getting to work with Prakashji.


What is the big difference you find in the new age directors that you work with?
I think that today the directors are more professional with technical know-how. Films that are made now belong to different genres. It is healthy to see all this happening in Indian cinema. I admire the fresh and young talent of today.

The older filmmakers have certain concepts about making films. But we cannot push them aside and say they aren't good. With time you change your thought process and accordingly, the audience tastes change too. Cinema now is propagated by the youth.

You have to look for what will appeal to them. There was more time available earlier, as we say in Hindi... therav tha bahut... but then circumstances are different now. In present times there is lot of speed, everyone wants to come to a conclusion and solution as quickly as possible.


Do you think that too much attention is nowadays given to an actor's personal life?
You step out and there are one billion cameras facing you. Every mobile phone has a camera and everything you do, gets documented immediately. There are facilities available and that's why it is possible. Earlier, you didn't have all this but that's a part of our lives now and we have taken it in our stride.