It could have been a celebratory weekend for the Bachchan family, with Abhishek Bachchan’s show Breathe: Into the Shadows debuting on Amazon Prime Video. Just a week before the show started streaming, Abhishek had completed 20 years as an actor. In a video interview with THE WEEK ahead of Breathe’s release, he had said that he was forever grateful to the audience for supporting his work. “That is a huge honour, which I take very seriously,” he said.
He might have imbibed the idea of including his fans in his success from his father. Amitabh has often described his huge fan base as his “extended family”. Perhaps that is the reason why, when the news of his infection began doing the rounds on July 11, he informed his fans on social media that he had tested positive for Covid-19. “Shifted to Hospital... hospital informing authorities… family and staff undergone tests, results awaited... All that have been in close proximity to me in the last 10 days are requested to please get themselves tested,” he posted.
An hour later, Abhishek, too, informed that he had tested positive. A day later, wife Aishwarya and daughter Aaradhya tested positive as well. As father and son get treated at the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai, and Aishwarya and Aaradhya quarantine themselves at home, there has been a deluge of prayers from their fans. Almost the entire film industry, as well as ministers like Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope, wished the family a speedy recovery. Currently, the hospital has announced that they are in a stable condition.
Pictures of havans and pujas, too, have emerged from places like the Hanuman temple in Kandivali West, Mumbai. “It shall not be possible for me to acknowledge and respond to all the prayers and wishes expressed by them that have shown concern towards Abhishek, Aishwarya, Aaradhya and me…. I put my hands together and say…. Thank you for your eternal love and affection,” Amitabh responded on social media.
Both he and Abhishek have been busy with work in the past few months, even if remotely. Amitabh featured in one of the biggest and most talked-about films during this period, Gulabo Sitabo, which was the first film to be released on a streaming platform in the absence of a theatrical window. Though he did not give interviews, he kept himself busy with the film’s promotions, coming out with several videos and social media activities.
Amitabh’s upcoming films include the sports film Jhund, directed by Nagraj Manjule, the much-awaited Brahmastra directed by Ayan Mukherjee and co-starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, and the mystery thriller Chehre directed by Rumi Jaffery, which was to release on April 20 but got postponed. Abhishek has a line-up of three films that include The Big Bull, directed by Kookie Gulati, about the life of stockbroker Harshad Mehta, the anthology comedy film Ludo by Anurag Basu and the crime thriller Bob Biswas by Diya Annapurna Ghosh.
Home base: Jalsa, the Bachchans' primary residence in Juhu, Mumbai
Ad-man Piyush Pandey, who has often collaborated with Amitabh, vouches for his discipline. “He is very particular about his health,” he says. “He has got no habits that [are not good for] his health or his body.” Pandey adds that he is always ready for experimentation. During the lockdown, Pandey had called him for #Family—A Made At Home Short Film that was to be remotely directed by Pandey’s brother, Prasoon. “He was on with the idea immediately. He wanted to do something for daily wage workers and he thought by combining both ideas, it would be a good way of helping the workers of the industry.” The film was part of Bachchan’s ‘We are One’ initiative to provide ration to one lakh daily wage labourers in the film industry.
Vinod Bhanushali, president of Global Marketing and Media Publishing for T-Series that is producing Jhund and Ludo, gushes about the family’s work ethic. Their professionalism and discipline are unmatched, he says. “I have seen him on shoots many times,” he says. “It is so amazing how everything is planned. He would tell you his in-time and out-time and in that given time, he would, with professionalism, finish everything perfectly. He would never give you an opportunity to complain. Everything is so meticulously calculated. We really need to learn a lot from him.”
Although Amitabh has been called the “superstar of the millennium”, “living legend” and “shahenshah of Bollywood”, in the last few months, with the rising number of Covid-19 cases, his fans have not been too forgiving. An avid social media user with 43.5 million followers on Twitter, Bachchan has had to retract some of his recent posts. On March 22, he tweeted about the evil force of the virus being at “max potential” on Amavasya, the darkest day of the month. “Clapping shankh vibrations reduce/destroy virus potency….,” he tweeted. “Cumulative vibrations better blood circulation.” It would turn out to be a risky message in such critical times.
The stark criticism he faced for the tweet forced him to delete it within hours of posting it. A few days later, however, he would advocate homoeopathy treatment in another post and again receive flak for it. After the Bachchan family tested positive for Covid-19, these previous posts have come back to trouble them. While the outpouring of love is unparalleled, people have not forgotten the tweets that seemed to discount allopathic treatment.
Critics have read more into the situation than one might have imagined. Soon after he was admitted, a video of Bachchan wishing and congratulating the staff of Nanavati Hospital started doing the rounds, raising questions about how the actor could have made a video after getting diagnosed. To control the damage, the hospital had to issue a statement claiming that the video was shot in April 2020 to motivate the frontline nurses, doctors, and staff working in the Covid-19 ward.
Perhaps it is the price that the rich and famous have to pay. And while they may have to constantly fight the naysayers, they are also the ones who people look up to and follow. As we pray that they get well soon, it might not be wrong to hope that this will pave the way for a more empathetic society and reduce the stigma attached to Covid-19 patients and their families.