Picture this: your very first big scene in a movie, and you’re acting opposite none other than Amitabh Bachchan—who also happens to be your dad. Sounds intimidating already, right? For Abhishek Bachchan, it was a day he’ll never forget.While chatting with The Hollywood Reporter India, Abhishek shared how nervous he was stepping onto the set of Sarkar. He was so anxious that he ended up fumbling through the scene. But things didn’t end there. A while later, Amitabh called him over to his car. What followed was a classic father-son moment—with Abhishek getting a firm (and memorable) lecture on how to do it right.Abhishek Bachchan looked back on the moment with a mix of humor and dread. “The first time we shot together was for Sarkar,” he recalled. “Ramu [Ram Gopal Varma] said we’d do a few test shoots before I left to film Bunty Aur Babli. This was September 2004. On the very first day, I was panicking, drenched in sweat. He calls me, ‘Shankar,’ and all I had to do was turn around and say, ‘Ji?’ But I was petrified—I was literally shaking. He has that effect.”When the shoot wrapped, Abhishek decided to hide out in his vanity van, assuming his father would drive off first. But to his surprise, Amitabh walked over and knocked on the door, telling him to come along so they could head home together.“The entire ride was silent. He just kept staring straight ahead,” Abhishek said. When they finally pulled into their bungalow’s driveway, the staff stepped away, leaving just the two of them in the car. “He just sat there,” Abhishek continued, “and then, in this very slow, deliberate way, he turned to me. ‘Isiliye maine itne saal mehnat karke tumhe padhaya likhaya? Dialogue bolna aata nahi hai tumhe?’ (Is this why I worked so hard and educated you all these years? You can’t even deliver a line properly.) I felt like I had committed a crime. The way he looked at me—he just destroyed me.”Released in 2005, Sarkar is a political crime thriller directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Amitabh Bachchan played the towering lead role, with Abhishek alongside him, and a strong ensemble cast including Kay Kay Menon, Katrina Kaif, Tanishaa, Supriya Pathak, Kota Srinivasa Rao, and Anupam Kher.Widely regarded as an unofficial adaptation of The Godfather, Sarkar became the first film in a trilogy, followed by Sarkar Raj (2008) and Sarkar 3 (2017). The film earned acclaim both in India and abroad, premiering at the New York Asian Film Festival and later being archived in the American Academy of Motion Pictures library.
