Look, who wants to be a journo (after rebirth)

Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, 66, who has had a tempestuous relationship with the media:

“I would like to be a journalist. In fact in my interviews that I had given in the 1970s, I mentioned during most of them that I want to become a journalist in my next life.

“I say this because I feel that it is a very difficult task since sometimes your conscience doesn’t match with reality and that’s where you want to go home and tear yourself apart and take a decision.”

In his next film Rann (meaning: Battle) directed by Ram Gopal Varma, Bachchan plays a media baron, a character rumoured to be the based on the life and times of a bearded TV honcho:

“What will the media do if torn between commerce on one hand and conscience on the other–that is the premise of this film.”

Illustration: courtesy BAFTA