Abhishek Bachchan had to change his entire body language to suit the era of Umrao Jaan’s Lucknow, then he had to undergo a re-acclimatisation of sorts for Mani Ratnam’s Guru. So much so, that he is still trying to lose all the weight he had put on for Guru.

Says Abhishek, “I’ve lost more than half the weight I had put on, and I’m still working on losing more. Putting on weight was a lot tougher than I thought. I was constantly eating. You tend to get fed-up after a while. It was tough. But the role demanded it and was therefore definitely worth it.”

Subtle changes

Ratnam required Abhishek to put on at least 11 kilos for the role in Guru. “At that time, I didn’t think about whether I’d be able to lose the weight or not. Mani told me that I needed to put on weight, and that’s what I did. You don’t question him,” says Abhishek.

He adds that when you’re working with people like J P Dutta or Mani Ratnam, your work’s cut out from the start. “For Guru, I had to assume a different look for every era from the 1950s onwards. We planned out the schedules in a way where we could proceed chronologically and shoot the film at a stretch. This was so that I could carry out the subtle changes in my look through the decades that Mani was keen I do,” he says.

Ratnam preferred to wait for Abhishek’s dates at a stretch rather than do the schedules separately. “Like I said, Mani is extremely prepared when he comes on the sets. So all I had to do was follow his instructions.”

Sky’s the limit

While Umrao Jaan features a lean look for Abhishek, Dhoom 2 features him in the cool-cop look yet again. “That meant that I obviously couldn’t look shabby! So yes, it’s a pretty cool look. The credit must go to the director Sanjay Gadhvi,” says Bachchan Jr.

With three big releases lined up one after another, the sky is the limit for Abhishek. “The sky is not what I aim for. It’s the audiences’ hearts. Umrao Jaan, Dhoom 2 and Guru go to places where Hindi cinema and I haven’t gone before. It’s very interesting for me to be in all these films that do the unexpected.”