Veteran Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who was recently seen in Vettaiyan along with superstar Rajinikanth, has shared that he is not very proficient in Bangla language.
Big B's wife, actress Jaya Bachchan has her roots in West Bengal, and she often talks to Big B in Bangla when she has to convey something very personal and specific to him while they are surrounded by people.
However, Big B understands too little of whatever she says during these conversations as he has a very limited proficiency in the language.
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 sees Saurav Choudhary from Kolkata, West Bengal. Saurav is a Senior Account Assistant at a CA Firm on the hot seat.
During the show, Amitabh Bachchan shared an interesting anecdote from his past. He recalled how his office was located right across the Bengal Chamber of Commerce in Dalhousie, where Bengali language classes were offered. The company would pay Rs 3000 for employees to learn Bengali to speak with the workers, with the condition that an exam would take place 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 exam finally came, the veteran actor successfully passed.
He also recalled a recent humorous incident with his wife, Jaya Bachchan, which required him to speak Bengali but he doesn't speak it as fluently any more, and how that 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 phone call from her. Normally, we talk through messages, but this time, she called, and I got nervous. When my wife calls, I get anxious, not knowing what's going to happen. I hesitated, answered the call, not knowing what had happened. She started speaking in Bengali because there were people around, and I didn't understand a 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 today to speak Bengali, I don't know it. I only know two words: Besi jane 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.)