Television needs to be given more importance and taken more seriously - Amitabh Bachchan

Exactly at 9.15 am today, the morning bell went off at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in style. And ringing it was none other than Amitabh Bachchan himself. The superstar actor was at BSE, early this morning, to promote his upcoming fiction series Yudh to be beamed on Sony Entertainment Television, starting early next month. An ingenious marketing strategy saw Sony partnering with BSE which ultimately allowed Amitabh to list his fictitious company, Shanti Constructions Pvt. Ltd from Yudh with the Sensex. An elaborate press conference followed post the listing where we fired a few of our salvos. Excerpts: Could you tell us about Yudh and your role in it? My character’s name is Yudhisthir Sikarwar, in short Yudh which is the title of this series. Yudh is the owner of a construction company called Shanti Construction Pvt Ltd. It has about 10, 000 employees in it due to which he has a lot of responsibilities placed on his shoulders. And as it happens in every business, there is competition here too, and Yudh has to deal with that. This competition throws up a lot of hardships and it gets intense when there are clashes between people in their bid to gain an upper hand in the race. Every business has to encounter and deal with politics and politicians as well. Similarly, even in this series, there is a minister played by Tigmanshu Dhulia who Yudh has to deal with. Yudh’s biggest problem however is a terminal illness that he is suffering from. He doesn’t want to disclose it to his employees because he fears that could instill doubts in the minds of his employees and reflect badly on the stocks of his company. Yudh is faced with problems from every possible direction. How he tackles them and what the end result would be is what this series is all about. Anurag Kashyap and Shoojit Sircar are associated with Yudh. Did you get them onboard? Yes, it was my decision to talk to Anurag about this series because I felt he could do a great job with this one. Anurag was also happy because he was himself looking to do something in television. However, Anurag said he would like to work only as a creative director and that he would want a director to look after everything else. In the meanwhile, I requested Shoojit Sircar to join in as a creative consultant. I am thankful to all these talented people for having accepted my offer. Your hit movie Trishul too had a company named Shanti Constructions and you have listed the same today with BSE. Any inspiration drawn from Trishul? Yes, Anurag Kashyap was inspired by that movie and decided to use the same name. Were you apprehensive or anxious while taking up this project on television? Every creative decision has a certain amount of anxiety attached to it. There is always this thought of whether I am doing the right thing or not. Now it is up to the audience to decide whether we have made the right decision. I have always believed that if we do something with complete sincerity, then somewhere we will definitely taste success. In terms of money and audience, is television better than films? (Thinks) Yes, it is. My knowledge on this is very limited but the little that I do know is that the turnover of television in India is approximately three times more than that of our movie industry. For instance, if the turnover in cinema is 10,000 crore, television will be about 30,000 crore. The reach, the effect and the affect of television in India is just about starting. The future possibilities, keeping in mind the demographics of our country is immense. We are often criticized of being excessively populated. But it is that very factor which is beneficial to us today. At any given point of time, you have 300 million people watching television. This is an enormous figure. We have 800 television channels in this country and let me tell you that there are about 300 other applications lying with the Government of India waiting for licenses to operate. This is an incredible number. It is like the entire universe is lying in one country. Therefore, I think television needs to be given more importance and taken more seriously because it is very challenging. Content is the king in television and the channel that has the best content will win. We have 800 channels competing with each other and this not only gives us impetus to do our best and to attract the eyeballs to make that program successful but also enhances our production values and qualities. And with the kind of funding and finances that we hope will come in, I am sure it will provide us with better incentive to make better stuff. So would it be correct to say that television is a far safer proposition than films today? Nothing can be considered to be a safe proposition in this world when it comes to creative performances. Take any form of art and you will never know what the result would be until you actually put it up. We take sufficient precautions but yet there are times when we fail. It is a gamble that we have to take when we are in this field. I don’t think there is any formula for delivering hits. Even the greatest of directors and largest production companies in the world have always encountered failures. I don’t think there is any single production company in the world that hasn’t tasted failure. So it is uncertain, because it deals with people’s reaction on what we do and that is always going to be changing. So yes, we take a risk just like we do any other business. Don’t you think a television series is a bit too small for your stature? I don’t think about stature and its bigness or smallness. If I get a medium where I can act, I will do it whether it’s a 70mm silver screen or small screen. I am not concerned about stature.