The night before he appeared at Lincoln Center for the Bachchan Sandhya, Amitabh Bachchan came to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for a press conference.

After some welcome comments from the Bhavan’s Dr. Navin Mehta and Dr. P Jayaraman, Mr. Bachchan said, as he loomed over the podium at us:

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen.   Thank you so much for having me here this evening.   And for giving me an opportunity to be present among the people of New York on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of my father.  

I think in many ways Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has gone one up on us in the family because we were planning to do some kind of celebration on the 27 November which is Babu-ji’s birthday.   But Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has decided to do something before us and therefore we are feeling a little bad about it but we will accept this gesture on their part.  

I thought that I would express whatever I had to at the function tomorrow but if there are any specific questions that the media would like to know on this occasion I’ll be very happy to answer.  

We are happy that there is an institution like the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in North America that looks after Hindi and Hindi speaking people, talks about our culture, our tradition, our literature.   This bodes very well for all expatriates who live out of our country and who miss and are deprived of any kind of cultural or literary activities and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan takes care of that.   I’ve been greatly impressed by the talks I’ve been having with the people concerned.   It’s so wonderful an institution I hope they continue doing the good work and propagating our language and our culture in other parts of the world as well.  

We are 1/6th of the entire population of the world, we are a billion people in India and a large number of them speak Hindi.   I think it’s only worthwhile that our culture and our traditions go beyond Indian shores.   We do in the Hindi film industry in a very, very small way what we can to propagate our culture, our language in the field of entertainment.   Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and other people associated with it are doing something similar but on a more professional and more ethical and greater cultural level than we do, but all the same, this is a wonderful enterprise, I’m very happy to be here, and I hope that tomorrow evening will go off well.   Thank you so much.”

Q & A:

Q:   Has anyone asked or discussed making a film of your father’s life?

AB:   No.

Q:   Who are some of your favorite authors or poets?

AB: There are several but I have to admit that I’m very biased as far as my father is concerned.

Q: On the 60th independence, what does independence mean to you?   Do you think we are independent?

AB:   Yeah, I think that our forefathers fought for independence and we are in our 60th year.   I do believe that, rather than become cynical and critical of what our country has done, we have to believe that, we’re a very young nation.   60 years in the life of a nation is a very small period.   You have to understand that we have lived a major portion of our existence being ruled by others.  

It was the Moghuls first, and then the British, and despite that we are today being looked upon as the future superpower of the world.   I think in a short span of time to be able to achieve this is something that needs to be looked at very favorably.  

I’ve always believed that the developing world moved ahead step by step towards its progress, it has reached where it has reached because it had an opportunity of an industrial revolution and gradually moved up to where it is now.   But because we as a country were oppressed for very many years, we were not given that opportunity.   We were always looked upon as the third world, as a developing nation, but because of our strengths, our determination to keep up with the rest of the world we have been making very rapid progress.  

You have to realize that in order to catch up wit the rest of the world we have to make quantum leaps, we have to leapfrog and go up.   If we were to also follow what the West did and move step by step, we will never catch up with them.   When we leapfrog there is always going to be a vacuum.   And a vacuum will create problems, difficulties, but I think we have the acumen and the desire and the will to overcome those difficulties.   So actually we’re doing two things: we’re wanting to make progress and take care of this vacuum that is being created.   So that needs to be appreciated.

The other factor is that I believe that every time a country progresses and makes do in the field of economics, suddenly everything about it becomes very important, everyone wants to recognize it.   I do believe the economic liberalization in the country given us the opportunity to move forward.   Now everything about the country has suddenly become very important, whether it’s our food, our culture, our dress, our language our films, everything.   I was at a function at the Indian embassy in London some months ago and the Mayor of London made a very pertinent point and said 20 years from now when the world will discuss the economics of the universe, there will be three people in that room: the president of the USA, the premier of China, and the Prime Minister of India.   I think that speaks volumes about where this country is going.

Rather than criticize ourselves and ask whether we are independent or not I think is a little harsh.   It’s very easy to criticize and find fault in all of us.   We have to see within ourselves what we are doing for the nation, rather than what the nation is doing for us.   We need to be our own policemen and our own guardians.   We need to see what we can do independently and not depend too much on the system and that’s the only way we can make progress.   So yes I’m very proud to be an Indian, proud that we are independent and extremely, extremely proud that we are doing so well. (audience applause)

Q: What impact has your father and the fact that he was a renowned and respected poet had on you as a person and as an artist?

A:   Impact is that of a father and a son.   In any family there is always a great amount of respect.   Our culture and our tradition teach us from a very young age our family values.   I am no different from any other Indian family.   I say this particularly here because here in the West the values that Indian culture and Indian families exhibit is almost negligible.   The young man when he becomes 18 in a family he just gets up one morning and says “See you later, Dad” and he is out of the house.  

In our tradition, we want to get up and stand on our feet so that we can look after our aging parents.   It was my desire to quickly get educated and find a job so that I could look after my parents.   When I was in a position to bring them home, I told them to leave wherever they were to come and stay with me and spend the rest of my life looking after them.  

I think that is missing in Western culture and I think we need to be very proud of this fact that our traditions and our culture dictate almost that our younger generation looks after our older generation.  

These are some of the values and many, many more values that I learned from my father.   It will take a very long time to describe them.   I just want to say that I grew up just like any other normal Indian in an Indian home where we learned to respect our elders, where we were told that when elders speak, you keep quiet, and just to follow so many examples that they set for us throughout their lives.  

Every day in every way I feel that in conducting my life I find the education, the teachings, the culture that was given to me by my parents I use them every day and I’m really, really proud and privileged that I was able to get that.   I think this is very common amongst all Indian homes where the elders leave behind a legacy for their younger children.   I’m sure that legacy is followed here as well because I see that, despite everything else, we have not forgotten our traditions even though we are hundreds of miles away from our roots.   That is wonderful, I hope that you can maintain that and proceed in a similar way.

Q: As the son of Dr. Bachchan, whose service to Hindi is undisputed, and as a member of the film fraternity, do you feel you have a responsibility to maintain the purity of Hindi as a language?

We try very hard.   I have to admit that with time and with age and with each new generation, some amount of pollution does take place.   I’m very happy about the basic concept of the Hindi film industry.   I do believe that Indian cinema is a great integrator within our country, a country which is diverse and which has so many different languages and castes and creeds and so many beliefs.   But I do believe that Hindi cinema, or cinema in India is one entity which really brings everyone.  

When we sit in a dark cinema hall we never want to know who the person sitting next to us is whether he’s a Hindu or a Muslim or a Sikh or a Christian.   When we stand in line to buy tickets to go to the movies, we never question who is in front of us.   Yet we all sit in the same the theater. We laugh at the same jokes, we cry at the same emotions we sing the same songs and we clap at anything dramatic that happens on the screen.   I think that that Indian cinema has respected our culture, our ethos and our traditions, and it is one entity, perhaps the only entity now left in the country which truly integrates the whole country.   (audience applause)