Ever since his debut in 2000, Abhishek Bachchan has always been one of the finest actors out there in Bollywood and one of my personal favourites. He has done some path breaking roles like in Guru and Yuva but has also faced the other side of the business quite often. After facing a slow pace in the midst, the actor had a revival in his career with Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyaan and it has been a pleasure for me to see him try to reinvent himself ever since with roles like in Ludo and The Big Bull. Very soon he would be seen in Bob Biswas and I am sure that it will add another feather in his cap.
The trailer of the film, based on the character of Bob Biswas from Sujoy Ghosh’s 2012 film Kahaani, was recently released and I was really impressed by the physical transformation shown by the actor to fit into that personality. In a recent interaction with India Today, the actor opened up about it, funnily saying that what stayed with him from the character after the film, was the weight. His character weighed 105 kgs and instead of using prosthetics, Abhishek chose to put on that weight.
Talking about using prosthetics instead, Abhishek said:
“Yes, that is something that Sujoy (Ghosh) and Diya (Annapurna Ghosh) wanted to explore first. I was dead against it. We did try it on to just you know, I like to give everybody a fair opportunity. I said I will try it. I wasn’t happy with it because of the lack of movement. When you put a prosthetic stomach, it is very inanimate. And you look fake somewhere. I believe today your audience wants to see an actor being completely authentic with the material that they have.”
He admitted that he had previously put on weight for Guru and The Big Bull but the dedication required for Bob was on another level.
Abhishek added:
“If you see Bob’s face, the face changes when it is round and his cheeks fill up. When you do prosthetics on the cheeks it looks like a prosthetic. So, the stomach moves in a different way. When you have that weight and you are physically carrying that weight your entire performance changes because your body language changes your weight, your movement, your walk, your run, everything changes you know.”
Bob Biswas also features Chitrangda Singh opposite Abhishek and will release on Zee 5 on December 3, 2021. It is produced by Red Chillies Entertainment and is directed by Diya Annapurna Ghosh. Abhishek has been picking up one diverse role after another, challenging himself at each step and his hard work and dedication shows in the end result. Thus, it feels satisfying to see that even filmmakers are showing that faith in him and giving him such opportunities. I feel that Abhishek is a much bigger talent than he is made out to be and I am sure that with the amazing line up that he has, which includes Dasvi, an untitled R Balki film and a South remake, his performances in them will establish that very strongly.