Akshay Kumar honours Big B at IFFI 2017 closing ceremony
The 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) comes to an end, many actors have graced the carpet this year and at the finale Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar attended the closing ceremony.
Reported in the Hindustan Times, at the IFFI closing ceremony, Bachchan was honoured with the Indian Film Personality of The Year award, which was presented to him by Kumar. Of course in true Mr Khiladi style, Kumar didn’t not fail to make the audience laugh during his tribute to the original Angry Young Man.
Kumar started of his speech with reference to the Indian comic books, which reference many of Bachchan’s famous dialogues.
“America might have Superman, Batman, Spiderman… we Indians have got the Angry Young Man.”
“I have done several films with you and in many, you have portrayed the role of my on-screen father. You’ve played the role of father to many other heroes too. So, today, I would like to officially say that you are the father of our industry. We have learned so much [from you],” Kumar added.
The ‘Airlift’ (2016) actor shared how he looks up to Bachchan for life lessons. “Aapki har salah main apne paas rakhta hoon. Aapki salah ke chakkar mein main Gujarat kareeban 10 baar ho aaya hu kyunki aap kehte rehte hain na ‘Padharo Hamare Gujarat Mein’. (I always keep your words with me and only because of you, I’ve been to Gujarat nearly 10 times because you keep saying ‘Kuch Din to Gujaro Gujarat Mein’),” Kumar said laughingly.
Going on to share a childhood memory of his first encounter withh Bachchan, Kumar said, “Mujhe abhi bhi yaad hai, 1980 mein, jab main 12 ya 13 saal ka tha, main apne maa baap ke sath Kashmir gaya hua tha aur wahan, sahab shooting kar rahe the aur main inki shooting door se dekh raha tha toh mere pita ji ne mujhe kaha, ‘jaa autograph le aa’. Main bhaag ke gaya aur sahab angoor kha rahe the. Maine autograph maanga, toh jab sir autograph de rahe the, toh meri nazar angoor par thi. Mujhe woh angoor chahiye tha. Woh ek angoor neeche gir bhi gaya tha. Main dekh raha tha, toh who jab likh rahe the, main chup karke neeche gaya, angoor ko uthaya… yeh baat unhone dekh lee but aise pretend kiya ki inhone dekhi nahi. Aur inhone sign karke mujhe mere autograph book diya aur saath mein itna bada angoor ka guccha bhi diya. Sir, main aapse yeh kahunga ki woh angoor thode khatte the. lekin mere liye.. ek bachhe ke liye who aapse milye hua chocolate ka box tha.. aur main kha gaya aur who digest bhi ho gaye. Lekin yeh kahunga sir, uski essence abhi tak mere paas hai. (I must have been 12 or 13 when I went to Kashmir with my parents and he [Bachchan] was shooting there. When my dad asked me to get his autograph, I noticed he was having grapes and I wanted those. Even when one of the grapes fell and I was about to pick, he saw me but pretended he didn’t. He then gave me the autograph with a bunch of grapes, which I ate, though they were really sour. But its essence remains with me even today).
Upon reflection of his own life and how he too experienced a similar situation, the ‘Rustom’ (2016) actor shared how he reacted when a certain kid (now a huge Bollywood star) met him. “Jo aapne kiya, woh maine hamesha Zindagi main yaad rakha. Mujhe nahi maloom tha main film industry mein aaunga aur ek aisa hi haadsa mere sath hua, jab main keemat film ki shooting kar raha tha aur maine dekha, ek bachhe ko, koi dhakka maar ke nikal raha hai shooting se, toh bachha ro raha tha. Main wahan gaya aur uss bachhe ke sath maine photo lee, batcheet ki aur woh bachha aur koi nahi balki Ranveer Singh nikla. So, aapki personality mere ander bass chuki hai. (Whatever you did, I always remembered it. I didn’t know I would be a part of the film industry and a similar incident happened with me. When I was shooting for Keemat, I saw someone was pushing a kid out of the film set. I saw the kid crying, so I went to him, spoke to that kid and got a picture clicked with him. That kid was none other than Ranveer Singh).”
