Mr Bachchan's master strokes

The actor has followed the 'use and let go' principle for everything, whether they are the products he endorses or individuals

In Bhoothnath Returns, his latest film to be released just about 10 days from now, Amitabh Bachchan reportedly has done the disappearing act quite a few times. That’s understandable as he plays the role of a friendly neighbourhood ghost who can be seen by nobody but his child-friend. 
 

Many of his once-upon-a-time friends – whether it’s a particular corporate house or individuals – would find the disappearing act familiar. For, on countless occasions in the past, Bachchan has made disappearance a fine art as soon as he began sniffing diminishing returns from these friendships. His diehard admirers would of course have a better word for this: cut-throat professionalism.

Pepsi or Amar Singh should have known better before crying from the rooftops about how the iconic actor left them in the lurch, but only after milking them to the fullest. So if Pepsi paid him Rs 24 crore for the eight-year brand sponsorship deal, Bachchan returned the favour by questioning the brand’s carefully cultivated equity a full 16 years later. This is hypocrisy at its worst. Many have gone to the extent of saying Bachchan knew he had no chance in hell to be associated with the beverage brand ever again.

 

 

On his part, Singh, who was once referred to by the Big B as his brother, learnt it the hard way once he was out of favour with the Samajwadi Party after his problems in the cash-for-votes scandal. Bachchan was the first to desert him at least in public appearances, as his wife, Jaya, was given a second term in the Rajya Sabha by the Samajwadi Party. Singh could only give media interviews where he said Bachchan is happy changing his clothes, style and friends with unfailing regularity. 

 

There are many other examples. Take Mehmood, the legendary comic actor. Though Bachchan wrote about the late actor in glowing terms in his blog, that gratefulness was nowhere in evidence when Mehmood was recuperating after a bypass surgery in a Mumbai hospital. In an interview posted on youtube, Mehmood said even though Bachchan went to the same hospital for some other purpose at the same time, he neither bothered to visit him nor sent him even a get-well card. “Ï don’t want to speak ill of a person who was like my son and whom I looked after during his struggling days, but it hurt,” Mehmood said.
 

That’s quite unlike the hero with a golden heart that we are used to seeing Bachchan in his reel life.  Listen to what Kader Khan said about him a few years ago. Khan who considered Bachchan to be a close friend talked about how politics changed the Big B for ever and ruined their friendship. 
 

The most curious, however, is his relationship with Raj Thackeray. Five years ago, Bachchan along with other north Indians bore the brunt of attacks of the MNS. But all that was forgotten a couple of months ago when both shared the same dais and spoke eloquently about how whatever happened was a thing of the past. Despite his protestations to the contrary, this shows how India’s biggest actor is a master politician as well.
 

Some things, however, never changed. For example, Bachchan’s admiration for Bal Thackeray remained intact even though the Shiv Sena has prospered by fanning hatred over the issue of migrants to Mumbai. Though Sachin Tendulkar, a Maharashtrian, said that he was an Indian first and Marathi later and even said that Mumbai was for all Indians, Bachchan has never uttered a word. 
 

Celebrities, for the most part, do not endorse products they believe in. They endorse products that pay them the right price. Bachchan is no exception, except that he has extended the 'use and let go’ principle to individuals as well. One doesn’t know whether this is due to his lack of conviction in anything or his careful calculation of a return on investment.