Mumbai:
Veteran Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who was recently seen in Vettaiyaan with superstar Rajinikanth, has shared that he is not very proficient in the Bengali language.
Big B’s wife, actress Jaya Bachchan, has her roots in West Bengal, and she often speaks to Big B in Bengali when she has to tell him something very personal and specific when he is surrounded by people.
However, Big B understands very little of what she says during these conversations as his proficiency in the language is very limited.
The senior actor made the revelation on his quiz-based show Kaun Banega Crorepati 16, on which he serves as the host. The latest episode features Saurav Chaudhary from Kolkata, West Bengal. Saurav, on the hot seat, is a senior account assistant in a CA firm.
During the show, Amitabh Bachchan shared an interesting anecdote from his past. He recalled how his office was located right opposite the Bengal Chamber of Commerce in Dalhousie, where Bengali language classes were offered. The company will give Rs 3000 to the employees to learn Bengali to communicate with the employees, the condition will be that the examination will be held after three months.
Big B’s salary was only Rs 500, and after expenses, he was left with Rs 150. The Rs 3000 provided for the Bengali course was spent within three days, but to make up for the lack of formal lessons, he would practice Bengali with two. Friends, after office hours. When the test finally came, the veteran actor passed successfully.
He also recalled a recent comic incident with his wife Jaya Bachchan, which required him to speak Bengali, but he no longer speaks it fluently, and how it created a problem for him.
He said, “When a guest comes, and you need to talk privately in front of others, Jaya always speaks in Bengali, and I pretend that I understand, but I really don’t. Recently she was shooting for a film in Goa and I got a call from her. Normally, we talk through messages, but this time, he called and I panicked. When my wife calls I get worried, not knowing what’s going to happen. I hesitated and answered the call, not knowing what had happened. She started speaking in Bengali because there were people around and I couldn’t understand a single word.
“I just kept saying ‘ha ha’, but after a while, I told her I didn’t understand what she was saying. So, sometimes, I have to do things like this. If you ask me to speak Bengali today, I don’t know it. I only know two words: Besi jaane na, ektu ektu jaane (I don’t know much, very little I can understand)”, he added.
Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 16 airs Monday to Friday on Sony Entertainment Television.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
