Abhishek Bachchan hadn’t seen Deewar (1975) in the theatre, until recently. “Oh, my god,” he exuberates with a childlike excitement as he reminisces about the experience. “I saw a restored version at Regal Cinema. My mind was blown,” he adds. “You are talking about a film that was made 50 years ago, but it’s so contemporary. It still holds.” Like a gleaming cinephile, he goes on to compare it with the experience of re-watching Bullitt (1968) recently. “In school, I was a big Steve McQueen fan,” he shares. “The film had the longest and (then) the coolest car chase scene. But when I watched it again during lockdown, I was like, ok, just get on with it now. With Deewar, however, I was like ‘wow, really’. That film hasn’t aged.”He excitedly goes on. “And we are also in the 50th year of Sholay! Do you know I was in my mother’s (Jaya Bachchan) womb during the film’s premiere in 1975?” he shares. “So does that make it your first film?” asks Madhumita, the director of his upcoming film Kaalidhar Laapata. Abhishek smiles. “I guess you could say that.”In the ZEE5 film, Abhishek essays the role of a middle-aged man suffering from Alzheimer’s, who gets a new lease of life after he meets a young, spunky orphan. Kids are becoming a constant in Abhishek’s recent, otherwise diverse filmography. Previously in Be Happy (2025), he played a father, supporting his daughter’s dream of becoming a dancer. I Want To Talk (2024) explored the relationship between Abhishek, who played a cancer patient, and his daughter. In the thriller series Breathe: Into the Shadows (2020-2022), Abhishek’s character is trying to save his daughter, who has been kidnapped by a masked psychopath. “Maybe these stories were resonating with me at a particular point of time,” he explains. “I was possibly going through a phase. My daughter (Aaradhya) was growing up as well, and I was enjoying that bond, the dynamic between a father and a child.”Abhishek also delves into the process of working with child actors. “There is no difference between them and adult actors anymore,” he says. “When I first started, the young actors had to be handled. Now, they come fully prepared. There isn’t much difference between them and experienced actors.”Daivik Baghela, a child actor who has previously worked in Bhopal’s theatrical circuit, plays the ever-positive Ballu in Kaalidhar Laapata, teaching a thing or two about life and living to Abhishek’s character in the film. “I have realised that when you work with children, there is more you learn from them than teaching them,” says Madhumita. “I remember we were rehearsing this intense scene with him. Usually, he is very enthusiastic, but at that time, he went completely quiet. I tried to engage in a conversation, but nothing. Later, I took him out for lunch, and there he opened up and told me that the scene reminded him of somebody he had lost. The thing with children is that you have to understand them, rather than teaching them your ways.”Abhishek wholeheartedly agrees. “What don’t you learn from the young generation?” he says. “Currently, if I need advice on anything to do with my work or whatever, I turn to my nephew Agastya, and he is this Zen master who comes up with these amazing solutions. It wasn’t like this, say 30 to 40 years ago. The younger generation has more access to information, and most of the time, they know what they are talking about.”Kaalidhar Laapata is a Hindi adaptation of Madhumita’s 2019 Tamil-language film K.D. The latter stemmed from her experiences with her grandfather, and the director talks about setting the story in a different, northern terrain. “It was important to stay true to the people and the language,” she explains. “Understanding the milieu itself was equally important. What are the family structures like? What are the limitations people have when they come from an economically challenged position? When I did the original, I got to spend about two months in Madurai, where I spoke to different people about the cultural practices. Similarly, I spoke to old people in orphanages around Varanasi where they had been abandoned.”Lately, the Hindi cinema landscape has started feeling like that. Old, dated, neglected. It’s not about the box office. The cultural impact of films has diminished. “Movies need to move you,” says Abhishek. “You either love it or you hate it. But if you are indifferent to it, well, that’s a death knell.”
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