Mumbai: Abhishek Bachchan has recalled his childhood experience of being on stage with father Amitabh Bachchan, in a throwback video he shared on Instagram on Friday, with a long caption post.
In the video, Big B can be seen introducing his kids Shweta and Abhishek to the audience, both of whom say “hello” into the mic.
Abhishek wrote: “#flashbackfriday In 1981, my father started the trend of film actors from India doing shows on stage and performing to their songs. Before that, only playback singers did so. I have so many memories of being on the road with him, his co-stars and the immense Kalyanji and Anandji and their 40 piece orchestra helmed by a young and upcoming Viju Shah ( Kalyan ji’s son and future Music Director of huge fame).”
“The rehearsals, sound checks, post-show dinners in my parents’ suite in the middle of the night where tiffin’s of Gujju food ( lovingly prepared by relatives and friends of the organisers or crew members locally in whichever city they were performing in) would be served to the entire cast and musicians and everyone would discuss the show and how it went…”
Johnny Lever was an indispensable part of the stage shows. Talking about the noted comedian, Abhishek further wrote: “…A very young, relatively unknown (then) and the upcoming stand-up comic would enthral everyone for hours on end with his mimicry and comedy till it was morning and time to leave for the airport to take the flight to the next city. His name was Johnny Lever!”
While celebrities are known for travelling by business class in airlines, this group was slightly different, reveals Abhishek. He wrote: “On the flight, everybody would take over the economy class, fold forward all the seats to make a huge ‘gadda’ like setting and the musicians, singers and dad would sing and jam and maybe create a new song to be performed later that night at the next venue. This routine went on 3 days straight. I doubt they must have slept for a collective 2 hours over those weekends. Functioning purely on adrenaline! Rest during the week and the routine would resume from Friday, again. What times!”
Abhishek added: “As a child standing in the wings looking at the show in awe and wonderment. Not realising at that time the legends that I was blessed to witness perform live. Secretly imagining myself on that stage once I grew up. As you can see from this video, my sister couldn’t wait to get off the stage and all I wanted to do was stick around.”
