Abhishek Bachchan occupied a spot on the list of trends on Wednesday after he recalled the time when his family was “going through a difficult financial time” on Ranveer Allahbadia’s chat show The Ranveer Show. Abhishek was studying at Boston University after attending Switzerland’s boarding school named Aiglon College when his family was going through financial crisis. The actor revealed that the situation was so bad that Amitabh Bachchan “had to borrow money from his staff” so that he can arrange food for his family. It was then when Abhishek Bachchan decided to drop out of his college in Boston and support his father in whatever way he can.
Talking to Ranveer Allahbadia, Abhishek Bachchan recalled the tough time and said: “I spoke to my father from college. My family was going through a difficult financial time. And I just felt as a son, although I might not have been qualified at that point of time, that I needed to be with my father. Even for moral support. He’s a big guy on moral support. He likes to know his family’s around. I said I can’t be here sitting in Boston when my father doesn’t know how he’s going to get dinner. And that’s how bad it was. And he said it publicly. He had to borrow money from his staff to put food on the table. I just felt morally obliged to be with him. I called him and I said ‘You know dad, I think I want to leave college half-way and comeback and just be with you, try and help you in whatever way. At least you’ll know that your boy is next to you and he’s there for you’.”
The financial dire straits Abhishek is referring to was a result of Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd or ABCL, Big B’s business venture that he began in 1995, running into debt. Abhishek came back to his family in India somewhere between 1995-1997 and started helping Amitabh Bachchan. Some years later, Abhishek made his debut as an actor in JP Dutta’s 2000 film Refugee, in which he co-starred with Kareena Kapoor.
2000 was also a turning point for Amitabh Bachchan who returned from the brink of financial ruin with two plum jobs – Yash Chopra and son Aditya cast him in Mohabbatein and he also began hosting Kaun Banega Crorepati. Both revitalised Big B’s career and the rest is history. On one of the recent episodes of his popular quiz show, the 79-year-old actor shared that he agreed to host Kaun Banega Crorepati because he wasn’t getting much work in films but now he is glad that he ventured into television with the quiz show, because of which he has received so much love from the viewers over the years.
