THE SUPERSTAR WHO INSPIRED A SUPERHERO COMIC BOOK

Who else…but Amitabh Bachchan!

It is an answer that would probably be guessed by most Indians, particularly those brought up on a steady diet of the angry young man in the late seventies and eighties. Those were the times when Amitabh reigned supreme, when one other star is reputed to have said, “He occupies numbers 1-10 in terms of star ranking, all the rest can be rated from number 11 onwards.

So one might think the question is a non starter on any quiz contest conducted in India. However the story of how the Amitabh comics were born is quite an interesting one.

It began on an outdoor location shoot of the film “Pukar” where Amitabh and his costar Randhir Kapoor were in Goa. Now it doesn’t take long for news of a film shoot to travel like wildfire, no matter where you shoot in India. So enamoured are people of film stars, that it is not unusual to see a huge crowd of people, gathered outside a bungalow, just because some lights are being set up. The crowd hangs around in the hope that some major star will eventually come into view, and then they can tell their grandchildren in excited tones, “I was there, you know!”

So while day one of the shoot on one of Goa’s pristine beaches was largely uneventful, soon word got around in the village that Amitabh Bachchan was there…in the flesh. The very next day, the crowds swelled three times over, all in the hope of catching a glimpse of India’s biggest film star. And maybe, even an autograph, or two! (The second one is a backup, silly!)

The film unit hastily put up barricades, deployed additional security personnel to man the location and for some time, the measures seemed to work. However, as the numbers increased, so did the worries on the heads of the film unit. The point was soon reached when, the numbers became so large, that the possibility of a stampede on the set became dangerously real.

The energy of the crowd was on an upward graph, their impatience growing by the minute at not being able to see him. Soon the outer barricades were overrun and the crowds gathered ominously around the outer perimeter of the film shoot. No security guard would be foolhardy enough to quell their enthusiasm for fear of being lynched. Eventually, the producers and directors of the film went to Amitabh Bachchan in his make-up room. They apprised him of the situation and asked him whether they should cancel the shoot.

Amitabh knew that this cancellation would mean huge losses for the producer, so he volunteered to step out and address the crowd. Nervously, the producers agreed hoping that this idea would work and they would be able to resume shooting soon. He came out of the make-up room and picking up the microphone that was arranged for him, spoke in his rich booming baritone to the crowd.

The crowd listened with rapt attention. They were words that first addressed them is the most respectful terms, words that understood for how long they had stood in the sun hoping to see their idol. Words that gently reminded them that the entire film unit was made of people like them who had only come there to do their job, and that the crowd should allow them to do so. They were words not spoken by a superstar from his pedestal, but by a man simply requesting the masses to be allowed to get on with the job.

The request worked. The crowd calmed down, waving out to Amitabh their love and affection and he too, responded in kind.

This became a kind of a routine over the next ten days; every time the crowd would become restless and unruly, Amitabh would willingly step in to soothe them. And on one such occasion when the crowd went out of control, Randhir Kapoor told the unit hands around, “Go, It’s time for you to call our superhero.”

These words were heard by a journalist present on the set. Her name was Pammi Bakshi and she immediately recognized the potential of a comic series that would feature Amitabh Bachchan. She approached the star with the idea and he too, warmed up to it in an instant. And thus the comic series, “The Adventures of Amitabh Bachchan” was born. It was called, “Kisse Amitabh Ke” in Hindi and the stories were penned by Gulzar. 

In each comic, Amitabh would himself write a personal message where he would address the children. And they would probably hear it in their heads in the same rich baritone that used to address the crowds in Goa.