It’s amazing what a power of three can do to a film and the Tour. Yes, I am talking about the Bachchan family, Amitabh, Abhishek, and Aishwarya. First it was their film Sarkar Raj that grossed almost £400,000 in the U.K. and now it’s their Unforgettable Tour which is selling like hot cakes in America. Not surprised to find out that all the shows are almost house full, I was more than curious to know Mr. Bachchan’s recovery. So what if one of the power house took a back seat, we still had the power of three. This time it was Jayaji, Abhishek, and Aishwarya who took over the proceedings. Hours before his first live performance in L.A. Abhishek Bachchan sounds upbeat…and why not? He is having a great response from the Tour so far, is highly excited about his next release Drona, is desperate to perform in front of his audience in London and of course, boosting with happiness to see his dad, our very own Big B, fully recovered. All this and much more from Abhi in this exclusive chat from L.A with Bollywood Hungama’s Devansh Patel.

So, how’s dad and what do the doctors say?
Nothing, dad’s good now. He is just at the rehearsals at the moment. He is back on his feet. He was fine yesterday and the day before. He had a bit of a cold but I forced him to stay in bed because I didn’t want it to spread into something which was uncontrollable. So as a son, I demanded that he stay in his room and locked him up. Dad has got a tendency that he pushes himself so much but thankfully he is fine now.

From Toronto to Trinidad to L.A. How’s the journey been so far?
The journey has been awesome. The reactions have been over-whelming. I never expected to see this kind of reaction. We were told that every centre, which was to host the show, was pretty much sold out except for the European leg because we haven’t come there yet. But America is completely sold out. And all this is just so wonderful because when you get on to the stage and see the audiences reactions, you know that you are not performing for yourself but for them. This Tour is for the audiences and will always be.

First the unforgettable Sarkar Raj collections in the U.K and then this Tour. Looks like London’s the hot-spot for the Bachchan’s.
London is a wonderful city. A city that is very close to our hearts. We spent a lot of time there as a family during holidays, we’ve done a lot of work over there and we’re very glad that we’re going to be coming to London in August. One thing I’ve been saying to the members of the media that London is definitely going to be the biggest and the best. So we’re saving that for the last.

And what else are you doing in your spare time?
Well, there isn’t much spare time because of the nature of the Tour. The minute you reach a new destination, you first get into all this media and promotional activities after which it’s just down to rehearsals. But it’s also important for you to know that nobody is taking this Tour lightly. Everybody is working very hard to put up the best show. We do realize that it is a demanding schedule but the endeavor was to put up the biggest and the best show that we could possibly do and I believe we’ve got such a show on our hands.

Could you recall one unforgettable incident from your Tour so far?
I think that was when the first time I came on stage in Toronto, the minute the lights come on, I just went blank. I forgot everything and I had to pass through the audience. I froze because the audience was all around and they were jumping around trying to reach out and touch me and shouting slogans. I was totally blanked out. Then finally, my manager Mambo Sharma, who was also from the U.K pulled me and said, “Come on bro, you’re on stage, move it”. And I replied, “Wait a second. Let me enjoy this a bit more.” But it was truly unforgettable. And the unforgettable moment was that I forgot everything.

Mr. Bachchan on his blog stated that Trinidad is like a homecoming for you guys. When you were a five year old, you performed along side your dad on stage for the first time in Trinidad. So how far did that memory go?
Dad used to do a track from his earlier film, Mr. Natwarlal, called, ‘Mere paas aao mere dosto’ in which he brought my sister and me on to the stage to introduce us to the audience. Now that’s a good 25 to 27 years ago. So it was wonderful to go back to Trinidad and win the place in the audiences hearts where we had been before for such shows.

Every Bollywood actor would once dream of dancing with Madhuri Dixit. Any plan?
I have plans of dancing with Madhuriji on the stage in L.A tomorrow night. So the plan is working.

For the first time while working, the Bachchans won’t be missing each other. But do you miss the hot Indian food?
No. Wizcraft made sure that wherever we travel, we were very well fed with our Indian ghar ka khaana. Can’t miss that for sure!

We are also hearing rumors that Amsterdam isn’t going to be the last city where you guys will be wrapping the Tour on the August 29. What else is up the sleeve?
Well, currently there are talks to do another show in Dusseldorf in Germany as they have requested us to do the show there. Plus, the second leg does start post September which will be in the Middle East, Far East and Australia and then we move on to Africa. So the Unforgettable Tour will be continuing. The exact dates though are not confirmed yet.

Everyone is talking about Big B, Abhi and Ash on the stage together. The family is incomplete without Jayaji. Is she going to shake a leg too?
She is on the Tour with us and she will be coming on stage and perform with us. You have to wait and see what song we perform on. Can’t tell you now.

After performing some hot numbers on stage in hot locales, how do you plan to cool yourself down after all this tiring schedule?
To be very honest, when you’re out there in the audience, you don’t think about the heat or the exertion. Their love and support just carries you through every hurdle. You can’t think of cooling yourself down. On my part, the minute this Tour gets over, I’ll be back in Mumbai finishing my film Dostana and getting ready to release Drona which releases on October 2.

How’s the response of the Drona trailer been? Any news?
It’s a teaser trailer and the first look into the film Drona. The response has been really huge. On the Drona website, www.dronathefilm.in, the response has been fantastic. Even in the kind of fan mail I’m getting, people are loving the trailer which is great because we’ve worked hard on it and it’s wonderful to see the audience liking the work we’ve done.

We’ve also seen couple of exclusive pictures of you, John and Priyanka from Miami while filming Dostana. It’s all looking great. Now that you’re in the U.S, does it bring back the Dostana days?
Well yeah. I was in Miami not too long ago shooting Dostana. We transited through Miami on our way to Trinidad and Tobago. It does bring back those good days.

Any last message for your fans who are going to see you next month performing in London?
To the audiences in London, we are willing to meet you all. We will hopefully make an unforgettable evening for you. It’s a wonderful show and you can be rest assured of a lot of entertainment and a lot of variety. I’m really looking forward to perform at the O2 arena. Love you all.

Bachchan collectiveness conquers the States

The collective power of the Bachchan family missed out on an elusive Top 10 place by just a whisker, in the United States.

Amitabh Bachchan, son Abhishek and his wife Aishwarya Rai nearly managed to achieve the impossible… a fete that a Bollywood film hardly ever manages… a US Box Office Top 10 slot. The Ram Gopal Verma directed political thriller entered the charts at number 11, 1 place behind Made of Honor.

Over its first weekend of release, it has accumulated $642,523, showing on 70 screens with a per screen average of $9,178… This was also the fourth highest average.