The inner truth Constructive criticism
At some point in our 90-minute tête-à-tête on Zoom, I ask rhetorically: ‘Why would Rakesh Roshan go to anyone else when he has Hrithik Roshan at home?’
A poker-faced Abhishek quips: “Why would anyone go to anybody else if they have Hrithik Roshan at home?”
I laugh at the laconic wisecrack and it leads me to suggest that two decades of straddling career peaks and troughs has made Abhishek unflappable about competition, criticism and its ilk. His emphatic response, however, surprises me.
“Au contraire,” he says, “I’m very flappable. I have a very bad temper and zero patience. But if you are referring to the unsavoury comments that I’ve faced, I have a unique way of approaching them.”
His approach is to alchemise criticism into personal growth. “Don’t let anybody convince you that it’s all about art. I don’t know any Indian actor who is not enamoured by the lifestyle, the glamour and all the trappings of cinema. The faster you admit this truth, the faster you can be truthful to your performances. Otherwise, you are going to keep building walls around who you are. Hum sab star-actor banna chahte hain (We all want to be stars-actors).”
The trick lies in not getting carried away. When I assert that Mahesh Bhatt had once told me ‘Success is nothing but delayed failure,’ Abhishek responds with disarming honesty, “I am not that spiritual about it. Let me tell you, it feels great when your film does well.”
Then he denies his indifference to criticism. “I take everything personally, especially the negative stuff. Yes, criticism hurts. It chips at your self-confidence and self-respect because you are failing on a public stage. The best an actor can do is humour himself with, ‘I am going to remember this emotion and use it in my film’.’’
Besides employing humour, Abhishek learnt to use the barbs as building blocks in the development of his own professional persona.