MUMBAI: Completing two decades in Bollywood recently, Abhishek Bachchan has reached a new milestone in his career with his digital debut with Amazon Prime’s Breathe 2. In a candid conversation on IMDb’s On the Scene, Abhishek traces his footprints in the entertainment industry, talking about the most challenging roles of his career.

Known for his intense roles in Yuva (2004), Refugee (2020), Guru (2007) and more, Abhishek has also delivered exceptionally in the comedy genre with movies like Bol Bachchan (2012) and Happy New Year (2014). Talking about his role in Bol Bachchan and exploring slapstick comedy for the first time, he said, “Slapstick comedy is unbelievably tough and my huge respect to the artistes who manage to pull it off effortlessly. A lot of them were in the film with us in Bol Bachchan.” 

He further added, “Comedy is all about the timing of your co-stars. It doesn’t matter how great an actor you are, if the actor opposite you is not reciprocating the timing, the way it should be then your performance is going to fall flat. You are least dependent on your talent and most dependent on your co-stars and that makes comedy all the more challenging. Bol Bachchan was a challenge for me. There were times where I was doubtful and I actually felt that Rohit (Rohit Shetty) might replace me because I wasn’t able to understand the level of energy that he required.” 

When asked about that one character that took the most from you and one character that gave you a lot as an artiste, Abhishek revealed, “The character which was really tiring physically and emotionally was Raavan (2010). That was a very difficult shoot firstly from a physical stand point and the location, it was very tough and obviously the work Mani (Mani Ratnam) is going to give you is very demanding. So from all the films that I have done, this is the one that tired me the most. The one movie that has given me the most, I would say is Refugee because it really taught me how long the road lay ahead of me and I need to traverse very quickly.” 

Sharing the first euphoric moment in his career, Abhishek shared, “It was 27th August 2004 when Dhoom release and the verdict was out. By then I was preempting failure. Adi (Aditya Chopra) sat me down and said – You just gave your first hit. I vividly remember, the first thing I did was gasp for breath and a relief. Before the euphoria, it was a sense of relief. It was an amazing feeling after a film of yours does well, the instant energy that comes back to you as an actor is great.”