How 'Mohabbatein' became Amitabh Bachchan's comeback film

By the year 2,000 Amitabh Bachchan’s career had come to a dead end  of sorts. His last crop of films in the 1990s as a leading man, like Lal Badshah, Sooryavansham, Major Saab,  Kohram and Mrityudata  had flopped.

And he didn’t know which way to go. What he had on his side  was self-honesty.

“I knew I had to start from the beginning again. My days as  the  conventional hero were  over. I had two choices. I could either retire.  Or I could re-invent myself,” Amitabh Bachchan recalled  in an interview with me.

This is where Yash Chopra came in. Amitabh had heard that Yash Raj Films was  planning a big film called Mohabbatein where there was  a role tailormade for him.

“One morning I woke up and walked over from my home to Yashji’s bungalow. I told him I needed a  role since I was jobless. He was gracious enough to immediately offer me a role in Mohabbatein,” said Amitabh Bachchan.

Mohabbatein started a new phase in Amitabh Bachchan’s career as a patriarch. The chalk-black hair was abandoned for grey hair and a beard.

To this day Amitabh credits his current innings as India’s oldest  superstar(my description,  not his) to Yash Chopra.

“It was a wonderful experience ,really.  At that age, time and moment of my career I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work in a set-up like this. I really can’t be too concerned about the length of my role, and so on,” Big B exulted to me after the film’s success.