Thaindian News

By Subhash K. Jha
Mumbai, April 9 (IANS) Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, who sang “Mere paas aao” in the 1979 hit “Mr Natwarlal” for children, feels it is time he reconnected with his young fans. After doing two adult romances “Nishabd” and “Cheeni Kum”, Amitabh is all set to woo his little fans in a big way with “Bhootnath” and “Alladdin”.

In “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” where his Jack Sparrow get-up was inspired by Johnny Depp’s act in “Pirates Of The Caribbean”, the kids loved Amitabh.

“I’m delighted to hear that,” said the Big B. “What you call the Jack Sparrow get-up in ‘Jhoom…’ just happened. I made no special efforts.

“The beard was my own. And that hat just happened at the last minute before the shooting. When I was going to face the camera, I saw the hat lying around and asked my director Shaad Ali if I can wear it for my song. That’s it. But I’m glad kids liked the look. I’m, in fact, doing two films this year that are specially aimed at younger audiences,” Amitabh told IANS.

In Vivek Sharma’s “Bhootnath”, the Big B will play a friendly ghost and in Sujoy Ghosh’s “Alladdin”, he’s the genie.

“Both the ghost and genie roles require me to tap the child within me who, let me tell you, is never very far from the surface in my personality. A lot of my interaction in ‘Bhootnath’ is with a child.

“I’ve had a child as my co-star years ago in ‘Do Anjaane’ and more recently in ‘Black’ and ‘Ek Ajnabee’, but these were films for a grownup audience. ‘Bhootnath’ and ‘Alladdin’ are my gifts to my young audiences.”

Also coming up is Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s take on “Lord Of The Rings” to be directed by ad-man Ram Madhvani featuring the Big B in an FX-suffused avatar.