Actor Amitabh Bachchan talks about his experiences.
I have spent over 30 years in the Indian film industry and have worked with almost three generations of directors and actors. There was a time when life in the movies was very different. It was slower and everything seemed simpler. Now, there are so many things to be dealt with: the light needs to be right, the equipment needs to be returned, and actors have to be somewhere else. There also used to be a sense of magic about the movie industry and the stars were special. Now they are just one of a crowd.
However, in my experience, the new generation of film-makers take their work seriously and they are all very confident. Sometimes, when a young director is talking to me about a scene, I can see technical difficulties. For example, in the film “Aks” we needed wild dogs for a particular scene and I asked Rakesh Mehra how we would do that. He said it was not a problem. He found an address on the Internet and we shot the scene in Romania. More often, Rakesh is anxious about getting the actors’ dates right or sorting out the financial side.
Most of today’s young directors have trained in the United States. They have learnt how to plan their productions in great detail and they are extremely well prepared. Before filming starts, they have already made decisions about the costumes, make-up, camera angles and so on. For an actor it means there’s someone taking care of everything. It makes the filming go smoothly. I have little doubt that the future of our film industry is in very good hands.