Actor on the future and stories he wants to tell
Actor Abhishek Bachchan talks to Gregory Wakeman about his new Amazon series and the opportunities offered by streaming services
As the follow-up to the 2018 hit Amazon series
Breathe, there was always going to be a lot of expectation around Breathe: Into
the Shadows. This increased exponentially, though, when it was announced that the series would star Abhishek Bachchan, 44, and Nithya Menen, 32, two of the biggest names in Indian cinema. Both make their digital debuts in the mystery crime thriller, further proof that the line between the big and small screens has never been thinner.
The National spoke to the pair only two days before Bachchan was hospitalised with Covid-19. His actress wife, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, 46, and their daughter, Aaradhya, 8, have also been diagnosed with coronavirus and have confirmed they will self-quarantine at home. His father, Bollywood stalwart Amitabh Bachchan, 77, is also in hospital, having tested positive for Covid-19 last Saturday.
When we speak, Bachchan is in high spirits and excited about the new opportunities offered by platforms such as Amazon. “When I started 20 years ago, one would never have thought that a medium like this would have opened up this kind of content,” Bachchan tells The National.
Meanwhile Menen admits that even she “couldn’t believe the size of the production” on
Breathe: Into the Shadows. Such scale was necessary, too, as Bachchan and Menen play Avinash and Abha Sabharwal, a married couple who have to deal with a series of unusual and dangerous ransom demands to get their kidnapped six-year-old daughter back. They’re joined in this pursuit by Breathe’s Kabir Sawant, once again played by Amit Sadh, who leads the investigation into her abduction, while also contending with the hostile environment of the Delhi Crime Branch.
Bachchan spent several months undergoing “severe” preparation for his leading role, as he looked to map out Avinash’s complexities and nuances over the course of an entire season – something he found quite odd, as he’s only used to doing that over one movie. “We had so much more material to work with,” he says. “Up until now I had only done feature films. They’re only two to three hours. This time I had 12 hours to fill. There were a lot of layers that we wanted to etch out. So there were a lot of discussions. A lot of debate. A lot of workshops that we all did together, all in order to refine the points of each character.”
Menen took a different approach. While she made sure that Abha wasn’t simply a grieving mother, teasing a surprising hidden depth that’s incrementally revealed over each new episode, she preferred to work in the moment so her performance could feel more authentic. This meant she would zone out just before each shot in order to “really process what was about to happen in the scene”. Thankfully, the cast and crew gave her the space to fully prepare. Menen says every member of the production team was “quality conscious” and had “evolved sensibilities” when it came to shooting.
Clearly this technique worked a treat, too. Menen is so overjoyed with her performance in the show that she has already called it the best of her career, which is all the more impressive when you consider that this marked her first role in a year.
It is the global reach of Breathe: Into the Shadows that most excites Bachchan, though. The series was released on Amazon Prime Video last Friday, in more than 200 countries and in several languages. “Because of the internet, we get to show our work on a platform that really doesn’t have any borders. Anybody can consume it,” he says. He also loves that the likes of Amazon only have to concentrate on quality, rather than adjusting content to lure an “audience to the cinema”.
“Their concentration is just on making very cool, cutting-edge content. You just have to think about getting the right person to do the right job. That’s the big difference.”
Menen echoes these sentiments, even going as far as to admit that she has never felt entirely comfortable starring in mainstream movies. “This new digital medium makes me feel so hopeful. It caters to everyone’s personal preferences. It doesn’t matter if you like horror, thrillers, dramas, comedies, they make niche shows … I am a niche actor ... This gives me a lot more diverse characters to play. Which films don’t … I’ve been waiting for this all my life. I am feeling very hopeful for myself, for my future.”
Bachchan feels like he is only getting started, too. “I don’t feel like I’m done or depleted or that I have no more stories left to tell. I have the same amount of zeal and excitement as I had 20 years ago. I am looking forward to carrying on and doing a lot more work.”
Breathe: Into the Shadows is on Amazon Prime Video now