Abhishek Bachchan regrets being ‘underprepared’ for his debut Refugee, says ‘my start was shaky’

Actor Abhishek Bachchan has opened up about a ‘regret’ he has about his Bollywood debut Refugee. In a new interview, he said that he ‘wasn’t prepared to work for the great JP Dutta’ at the time. Abhishek also added that he ‘should have been better for JP Dutta’.

Refugee, released in 2000, is a romantic drama film marking the Bollywood debuts of Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor. It was written and directed by JP Dutta. The film also featured Jackie Shroff, Suniel Shetty and Anupam Kher.

In an interview with RJ Siddharth Kanan, when asked to talk about making mistakes in his career, Abhishek said, “One of the very few regrets that I have is that when I made my debut with Refugee, I felt I wasn’t prepared to work for the great JP Dutta. You get to work with such an honoured director on your first film, you need to be prepared for that challenge and that honour. I felt I was very underprepared as an actor. I should have been a lot more prepared for JP saahab. JP saahab is family for me, I love him. I should have been better for him.”

Abhishek also said, “But that’s also something which has been a great learning. Had I not, I would have not learnt the things that I learnt in the 20 years after that. If I had been so prepared at that time, I don’t think I would have ever learnt anything as an actor. It’s not how you start, but how you end. But your start determines a large part of how you are going to end. Because my start was shaky in that aspect for my preparation perspective, it kind of kicked me to pull up my socks, you gonna do better, you need to do better, you need to do better.”

Following Refugee, Abhishek has worked in over 60 films including Dhai Akshar Prem Ke, LOC Kargil, Zameen, Run, Yuva, Hum Tum, Bunty Aur Babli, Dhoom, Sarkar, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Delhi-6, Paa, Raavan, The Big Bull among others.

Also Read | Abhishek Bachchan on actors who say awards don’t matter: ‘Because they didn’t get one’

Meanwhile, Abhishek will be seen next in Bob Biswas, directed by Diya Annapurna Ghosh and written by Sujoy Ghosh. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan as the titular character and Chitrangda Singh is playing the role of his wife. Bob Biswas is produced by Gauri Khan, Sujoy Ghosh and Gaurav Verma. It is set to premiere on December 3, 2021, on ZEE5.