New Delhi: Superstar Amitabh Bachchan was effusive in his praise for filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who died Sunday, saying he was like a "father figure" to him and his wife Jaya while asserting "they don't create people like him any more".
"Working with Hrishida was an unbelievable experience because his style of filmmaking was never to compromise on quality and on the story ideas," Bachchan told BBC News.
Bachchan, who played many memorable roles under Mukherjee, dismissed the largely held view that the late maestro's movies had lost touch with modern day audiences.
"I think it's wrong to say his kind of cinema doesn't work any longer. I'm sure if Hrishida were to make those kinds of films again, it would certainly have an audience. He set his own path which was neither too artistic nor too commercial," he added.
Bachchan was lavish in his praise for the late director's superlative art of characterisation.
"They were all exceptionally well-etched and, of course, the greatest opportunity to perform for me has been for his films. His knowledge of the craft was so immense that we just left ourselves in his hands," he said.
"One of the most interesting characters I played was in Anand. I worked with him much before the 1973 film Zanjeer came, where my so-called image of Indian cinema's 'angry young man' was seemingly established," Bachchan said.
Narrating how Mukherjee was in the sets, the actor said, "We never heard any scripts, never heard any stories - we just came on the sets. He told us to stand there, walk here, say it in this manner, speak like this - that's how he used to direct all of us. So our input was nothing at all. All that you see in his films is entirely his input."
Whenever there was any difficulty in executing a complex character, the late director was always available to ensure the scenes went on without suffering any jolts.
"If it was a complex character like in Mili, we would sit together and he would give a one-line description and then guide us as the scenes came," said Bachchan.
But the late director's characters never came from out of the blue. They were invariably close to reality.
"He was a master editor and knew his craft incredibly well - he would shoot a scene and you would know nothing about it till you saw it," said the actor.
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