Amitabh Bachchan took a long hiatus from the movies in the 1980s after he started his journey in politics. However, his stint in politics was terminated midway, but he discovered that the film industry had evolved tremendously, and wasn’t ready to take big bets on him. It was during this phase that Bachchan appeared in Mukul Anand’s film Agneepath, where he played the role of a man who chooses the path of crime to avenge his family’s honour. While playing Vijay Deenanath Chauhan, Amitabh tried something new; he decided to dub his character in a distinct voice, but the audience wasn’t having it. In a new interview, his son, Abhishek Bachchan, recalled that Amitabh had to redub the entire film in one night after the release, because the audience outright rejected his experiment.
In a chat with India Today, Abhishek said, “I remember sitting with my father watching him re-dub Agneepath in one night.” Abhishek said that “when the film released, they started getting reports that people were breaking the sound systems at the theatres because they said, ‘What happened to Amitabh Bachchan’s voice?’ They thought the speakers were off.” Amitabh is known for his baritone, and so, it was probably difficult for them to accept a new voice. In fact, the early reviews of the film, including that of trade analyst Komal Nahta, also criticised Bachchan’s voice.
When Amitabh Bachchan redubbed Agneepath in one night
Abhishek recalled that Yash Johar, who was the producer of the film, figured that they had to do something about it, and thus, they decided to re-dub the entire film. “I remember Friday night, he went into the dubbing studio and I sat with him and I fell asleep, I was very young. He spent the entire night re-dubbing the entire film in his normal voice. And Saturday, 8 am, he walked out of there. Mukul Anand took those cans for mixing and by Saturday night, they were sending those prints everywhere with the new voice,” he recalled.
Amitabh Bachchan Agneepath. (Express archive photo)
Despite these efforts, Agneepath didn’t work at the box office but it fetched Amitabh Bachchan his first National Film Award for Best Actor. Later, he won the same award for Black, Paa and Piku. He holds the record for the most Best Actor award wins by a male actor.
