Amitabh Bachchan, Anurag Kashyap team up for TV show

After his long and successful stint host Kaun Banega Crorepati, Amitabh Bachchan is all set to star in his first television fiction show on Sony Entertainment channel.

With Anurag Kashyap as creative director, the show will be produced by Bachchan's company Saraswati Creations in collaboration with Endemol India.

“I look at this as another chance to connect with audiences,” the 70-year-old actor says of his new venture.

The show will reportedly be about social issues though no details have been divulged yet.

“I was looking to do something different on TV. I was keen on doing a fiction show.
It is his eagerness to try new things that impelled the veteran actor, who has been working on the project for the past six months, to try his hand at a fiction show.

“Whenever we do something new, there is always pressure and anxiety.

We have had debates, discussions and arguments.

“I have been wondering for a while if it would be appropriate to act in a fiction show.

"A lot of people said that I am reducing my stature when I did TV for the first time. With each project, I feel what can be done next? Now, as I turn 71 this year, I want to do what I've never done before,: he adds.

The silver screen legend is all praises for director Anurag Kashyap, who holds Bachchan in high regard and had invited him for a brief role in his directorial short in Bombay Talkies.

"We are in the process of constructing the show. I am very appreciative of his work. I’ve always had the desire to work with Anurag Kashyap,” Bachchan said, signalling that the once-strained relations between the two are now firmly in the past.

Shooting of the untitled show is expected to start some time this month.

In the picture:  Anurag Kashyap and Amitabh Bachchan
Photograph: Pradeep Bandekar