As Amitabh Bachchan turned 84 on Sunday, Imtiaz Ali offered a tribute that was less about any single performance than about an entire era. The director told PTI that he places himself among the Indians who grew up inside the Bachchan years—a period he does not believe can be repeated.
A star measured by an era
Ali was speaking on the sidelines of Whistling Woods International’s annual cinema festival, Celebrate Cinema ’26, where he took part in a session on his recent release Main Wapas Aaunga.
“There is nobody like Amitabh Bachchan and there never will be,” Ali said. “I will categorise myself as a person who was born in the Amitabh Bachchan era in India.”
That framing matters because Bachchan’s career has stretched for more than five decades. For much of that time, he has been the reference point against which Hindi film stardom is judged. Ali’s remark is less a compliment about a filmography than a claim about a cultural period: the era defined by Bachchan cannot be remade.
Many tributes catalogue roles. Ali’s tribute treats the star as a period of time, a way of saying that the conditions that produced Bachchan—and the audience that grew up with him—belong to a specific moment. That is why his words may resonate with readers who see their own filmgoing lives in that chronology.
An ad film as a bridge
Ali admitted that he once assumed he would never work with Bachchan because the veteran’s stature felt too towering to approach. The change came not on a feature set but on a commercial. After directing Bachchan in an advertisement, Ali said, he realised the actor was someone he could, and would love to, direct.
“I had the good fortune of doing an ad film with him,” he said, adding that he now hopes to make a full feature with Bachchan someday.
The small assignment is a useful pattern: the gap between a legend and a working artist can close in a matter of craft. For Ali, the ad film was not a substitute for a picture; it was the evidence that a collaboration could work.
A year of personal and professional milestones
Ali’s comments arrived during a year dense with markers:
- Main Wapas Aaunga has done well at the box office.
- His daughter Ida recently got engaged.
- He has completed 25 years in the film industry.
That long view may explain his stance on pressure. Ali said audience affection has made him more aware of what he owes viewers. “I want to give a gift back to the audience,” he said. “So now, when I’m making a film, I always keep that in mind.”
He described filmmaking as a rare privilege rather than a burden, adding that he still finds himself in disbelief that he gets to be a film director. It is a fitting note for a story that began with one era and ends with another still writing itself.
Source: The Times of India
Comments