Abhishek Bachchan is banking heavily on his next release, Mani Ratnam’s ‘Guru’. What is rumoured to be a biopic on Dhirubhai Ambani (though Mani has time and again denied the connection) has Abhi playing Guru, whose rags to riches story make the plotline of the film. “Expectations are obviously very high. When you work hard at a project and believe in it so much, you obviously want it to do well,” says Bachchan Jr.

Not so easy

Abhishek has put in lot of energy into the film. From putting on weight to develop a convincing paunch to suit his role as he grows older to getting up at 4 am to suit Mani’s schedules, a lot of hard work has gone into this project.

Abhishek says he was scared when Mani came to him with the role, “It most definitely made me nervous. But I think these kind of challenges are part of being an actor. No actor would like to keep doing parts which come easy to him. You always want to be challenged and ‘Guru’ was a challenge. I want to be proud of my work and keep striving for something that will give me that pride. ‘Guru’ is one such film.”

Different strokes

Ask him if it was tough relating to a role which rises from a modest background as he himself comes from a comfortable one, Abhishek agrees but says on the human level, he could relate to a lot in the character. “That’s what acting is all about — having to work on characters which require you to be something different from what you are. What’s the fun in playing a character which is exactly like you?”

One of Guru’s dialogues is, ‘If people are talking bad about you, it means you are good’ — does he believe that in real life too? “I am too young to understand that. It is something that the main character believes in, but I am too inexperienced to know if it happens in real life too,” he says.

Playing to win

Ask him if he thinks its okay to be ambitious, to make it by hook or crook, and he gets animated. “What’s wrong with being ambitious? If I want to achieve something and be the best in whatever I do, why should it be looked down upon? Who will judge what is ethical or not? I think ethics changes from person to person. Also it changes with time.”

Coming back to personal life, there are speculations of him getting hitched to co-star Aishwarya this year, is that true? “No sir!” is his prompt reply.