Megastar ‘Aankhen’ turned 24 yesterday (April 5). Amitabh Bachchan takes a nostalgic trip down memory lane in this exclusive interview with ETimes reminiscing about the film, its unique premise and its bold negative role.Amitji, ‘Aankhen’ has completed 24 years. What do you remember about that time?It seems like a lifetime… gosh, how time flies! I remember shooting for the film in Kamalistan studios. We needed a train sequence, and that was the only studio that had a permanent train station.Arjun Rampal, Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Vipul Shah looked like they were having a lot of fun?It was a lot of fun to shoot. The boys had a blast, and I tried to be a part of their fun. But they insisted on treating me like an old man.‘Aankhen’ took you to a very different space as an actorAbsolutely. I played a completely negative role. It got its plot from a Gujarati play directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. I played the role of a high-spirited bank manager, a man who is almost directly responsible for everything that goes wrong in the story.You were part of the bank robberies in “Aankhen” and “Kaante”.In ‘Kaante’ I did not lead the robbery, I was part of a group. But in ‘Aankhen’ I am the driving force behind everything that goes wrong.Was it difficult to play such a negative character?Not really. I did it earlier too, in ‘Saudagar’, my behavior towards Nutan was absolutely disgusting. I remember apologizing to him after the movie, and it was very nice. In ‘Parwana’, I played the role of an assassin. There have been many such roles. As an actor, one should never judge a character.You also had shades of gray in ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’(Laughs) Yes, I asked for a lot of trouble in ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’. I throw my son, played Shah Rukh Khanoutside the house I slap Hrithik Roshan, I am hard on Jaya Bachchan, and I insult him too Kajol. This leads to serious problems!There was Sushmita Sen In ‘Aankhen’Sushmita Sen was one of the protagonists. Very honest and original.
