Premium19 years of Sarkar! Look at Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan's iconic films over the years
Celebrating 19 years of Sarkar, the unforgettable chemistry between Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan continues to captivate audiences.
Last Updated: 04.45 PM, Jul 01, 2024
It is only fitting to commemorate the extraordinary onscreen collaborations between Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan as the legendary film Sarkar approaches its 19th anniversary of its premiere. The unforgettable performances of this father-son combination have left an everlasting impression on Indian cinema, spanning all genres. Their electric chemistry is on full display in all of their films, from the hilarious antics of Bunty Aur Babli to the crime-ridden Mumbai streets of Sarkar and Sarkar Raj, in which Sr. Bachchan delivers a stunning performance as Subhash Nagre and Abhishek gives a nuanced performance as his son Shankar. Among their other notable collaborations are the romantic drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and the touching Paa, in which he intriguingly plays the son of Abhishek.
Films featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan
Bunty Aur Babli (Prime Video)
Shaad Ali helmed the 2005 crime comedy Bunty Aur Babli, and Jaideep Sahni wrote the screenplay. Aditya Chopra, who produced the film through Yash Raj Films, came up with the story idea. Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Rani Mukerji star as the protagonists in the film, which is based on the 1967 American film Bonnie and Clyde. This marks the commencement of a significant partnership between the father-son Bachchans. The DCP, played by the older Bachchan, relentlessly pursues the con artists' accomplices, Mukerji and the younger Bachchan.
Abhishek Bachchan plays the character Rakesh, who is constantly planning, thinking, and inventing. Even his little community starts to feel inadequate in comparison to his grand ambitions. An unlikely young woman in another region of India, Vimmi (Rani Mukerji), has a crinkle nose and lives in a small town. She has no interest in becoming average or married. She believes that everyone is in awe of her because she is the "Miss India" they've been waiting for. Therefore, they chose to mount a coup. Rakesh and Vimmi cross paths during their separate adventures. The story of Bunty and Babli begins with an innocent error of judgement. A complete and utter paradigm shift occurs! Through a series of capers, we follow the couple as they assume a variety of roles, including spiritual guru and secretary, gangster and moll, business partners, a pregnant woman and her husband, homeless people, and lovers caught in a downpour. As we watched, they cornered rajahs, power brokers, shaadi bandwallahs, millionaires, investors, ministers, elephants, explorers, hoteliers, chai boys, and one irate policeman, DCP Dashrath Singh (Amitabh Bachchan).
Sarkar (JioCinema and Prime Video)
Ram Gopal Varma directed the 2005 political crime thriller Sarkar. Starring alongside Anupam Kher and Kota Srinivasa Rao are Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Tanisha Mukherjee, Supriya Pathak, and Kay Kay Menon. This film serves as the pilot for the Sarkar series. The film premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival. The American Academy of Motion Pictures library has archived Sarkar.
Amitabh Bachchan plays Subhash Nagre, also known as Sarkar to his devotees, who resides in Mumbai. The father of a rape survivor (Veerendra Saxena) goes to Sarkar in search of justice after the corrupt court system fails to deliver it. Sarkar quickly puts an end to the situation by ordering his thugs to beat up the rapist. Kay Kay Menon portrays his son Vishnu, a sleazy producer who harbours feelings for Priyanka Kothari's Sapna instead of Rukhsaar Rehman's Amrita. After finishing his education in the US, Sarkar's other son, the more moral Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan), brings his sweetheart Pooja (Katrina Kaif) back from her travels. Shankar, who is certain of his father's morality, ends their relationship because Pooja has reservations about Sarkar's reputation.
Ek Ajnabee (JioCinema, Prime Video, ShemarooMe [OTTplay Premium], Lionsgate Play [OTTplay Premium])
Apoorva Lakhia directed the 2005 action thriller Ek Ajnabee: A Man Apart, which stars Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal, and Perizaad Zorabian. Tony Scott directed Man on Fire (1987), an adaptation to the same-named book. Amitabh Bachchan plays a man whose mission is to save a wealthy couple's kidnapped daughter. The young girl's new bodyguard is Abhishek Bachchan, who will later play Lara Dutta.
Shekhar (Arjun Rampal), a friend of retired colonel Suryaveer Singh's (Amitabh Bachchan), asks him to watch over a baby girl named Anamika (Rucha Vaidya). However, when criminals attack Suryaveer and Anamika, they abduct Anamika. The responsibility of rescuing Anamika falls on Suryaveer when her father (Vikram Chatwal) is unable to pay the ransom.
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Netflix and Prime Video)
Karan Johar and Shibani Bathija co-wrote Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, also known as KANK, a 2006 romantic drama film. Amitabh Bachchan, Kirron Kher, Rani Mukherji, Abhishek Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Preity Zinta are among the film's stars. The film, addressing issues of broken relationships and adultery within marriages, promoted itself with the slogan "A Love That Broke All Relationships." The plot of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna revolves around the love story of two married women, Maya and Dev, who meet and fall in love in New York City.
In the film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, the protagonists, Maya and Dev, are married to separate people who they think are content with their lives—until they cross paths. An unfortunate incident ends the career of professional football player Dev (Shah Rukh Khan). Preity Zinta portrays his wife, Rhea, who is enjoying a successful career. Kirron Kher portrays Kamaljit, Dev's mother, who resides with them and their child, Arjun. Rani Mukerji portrays Maya, a nursery school teacher, while Abhishek Bachchan plays her PR consultant husband Rishi. The flamboyant and fun-loving Samarjit Singh (Amitabh Bachchan), who is Rishi's father, is primarily concerned with making sure his son and daughter-in-law are happy. Though they're secretly unhappy, the two couples appear satisfied on the outside, but that all changes when a serendipitous meeting brings Dev and Maya closer. They develop a bond of friendship after experiencing an odd connection. Their time together quickly led to problems. Because of their newfound connection, Dev and Maya examine their marriages from different angles and confront problems they hadn't previously encountered. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna's central theme is how each character handles this sudden change in their lives.
Shootout at Lokhandwala (JioCinema, Disney+ Hotstar, Prime Video)
Apoorva Lakhia directed, co-wrote, and co-produced the 2007 action thriller Shootout at Lokhandwala, which also features Sanjay Gupta, Ekta Kapoor, and Suresh Nair. Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Vivek Oberoi, Arbaaz Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Rohit Roy, Aditya Lakhia, and Shabbir Ahluwalia all play important roles in the film, which is based on the 1991 Lokhandwala Complex gunfight, a real-life gun battle between gangsters and the Mumbai Police. The film features Abhishek Bachchan in a special appearance.
Maya, Dilip, and four other criminals were counting 70 lakhs in flat 32 B in the busy Lokhandwala Complex when two hundred and eighty-six policemen, commanded by ACP Khan, took up positions surrounding the building. The six-hour shootout turned suburban Mumbai into a makeshift battle zone, and the entire country watched in awe as gunfire erupted. The protagonist, Khan, is a seasoned police officer who embarked on a chase with Khalistani extremists, recruited officers like Inspector Kaviraj Patil and Constable Javed Shaikh, and faced off against violent gangsters in a residential area of Mumbai in the film Shootout at Lokhandwala. Beyond the confrontation, Khan had to contend with an internal departmental inquisition and legal accusations of human rights breaches. Maya, a rising star in the criminal underground, and Dilip, a skillful accomplice, are the protagonists of Shootout at Lokhandwala. The two attracted Khan and his newly established ATS squad because they dared to defy the underworld's powerful figures and made extortion a popular tactic in the early 90s. Maya and Khan were both manic-depressives who were so invested in their careers that it took a toll on their personal lives.
Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (Prime Video)
Shaad Ali wrote and directed the 2007 Yash Raj Films musical romantic comedy Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, while Aditya Chopra produced it. Starring Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol, and Lara Dutta, with a cameo by Amitabh Bachchan, the film is based on a narrative by Ali and written by Habib Faisal.
There is only one table available in this jam-packed cafe in London. In order to pass the time, two complete strangers swap "how I met my fiancé" tales. Abhishek Bachchan and Lara Dutta, as Rikki and Anaida, met at the Ritz in Paris, while Bobby Deol introduced Alvira and her prince charming Steve at Madame Tussauds in London. As the session came to a close, the two had developed an unsettling attraction to one another, and stories began to unravel. Rikki and Alvira, along with Anaida and Steve, find themselves in a delightful jam where they must think on their feet, navigate each other's emotions, play musical chairs, and lie through their teeth. What follows is a wild love story filled with deceit, madness, and a complex triangle. This is it if polarities attract.
Sarkar Raj (Disney+ Hotstar)
Ram Gopal Varma directed the 2008 political crime thriller Sarkar Raj. The release of the film Sarkar in 2005 signalled the continuation of the Sarkar film series. The 2008 Cannes Film Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival were the venues for the film's world premieres. The film's original home was the Academy of Motion Pictures library. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, one of the new cast members, joins Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, who return from the original. Ravi Kale, Tanisha Mukherjee, and Supriya Pathak all made triumphant returns to their roles from Sarkar. Both critics and audiences gave the film a positive response.
As soon as Anita Rajan, CEO of the multinational power plant Sheppard, presents a plan to the Nagres to construct a power plant in rural Maharashtra, Shankar, ever perceptive, sees the potential advantages for the locals. After persuading Sarkar, who is opposed to the plan for a variety of reasons, Shankar and Anita travel to the villages of Maharashtra to rally support from the populace. As time goes on, though, Shankar's ideal endeavour becomes a political quagmire, and nothing is as it seems. This is the setting for the rise of the evil forces, now more powerful than before, and their plan to topple Sarkar's government and wipe Shankar's prominence from political history.
Delhi-6 (Netflix)
Rakesh Omprakash Mehra directed the 2009 drama film Delhi-6. Abhishek Bachchan plays the role of a non-resident Indian (NRI) who travels to India to care for his sick grandmother (Waheeda Rehman). While there, he starts to learn about his family history and becomes involved in a religious conflict with a strange monkey-like assailant. The actors appearing in the film are Sonam Kapoor, Aditi Rao Hydari, Rishi Kapoor, Supriya Pathak, Pavan Malhotra, Deepak Dobriyal, Divya Dutta, Vijay Raaz, and Om Puri. Amitabh Bachchan makes a special appearance as Abhishek's grandfather in the film.
Roshan is the protagonist, an Indian-American boy who travels to India for the first time to see his sick grandmother. She is making arrangements for her own demise because she wishes to pass away on her own turf. When he arrives in India, he immediately starts interacting with the people in his grandmother's neighbourhood and fits right in. Throughout the narrative, the old walled city of Delhi serves as both a setting and a protagonist. Delhi represents the confusion in religion and philosophy among Indians.
Paa
R. Balki directed the 2009 comedy-drama film Paa, which stars Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Vidya Balan. The film's opening titles feature Jaya Bachchan in a cameo role as the film's narrator. The story is about a youngster and his parents dealing with progeria, a rare genetic disorder; it is supposedly based on the 1996 Hollywood film Jack. Although their onscreen roles in Paa couldn't have been more different, Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan actually play son and father, respectively. Both critics and audiences in India gave the film high marks. For his role, Amitabh Bachchan took home the Best Actor trophy at the 57th National Film Awards—his third.
A very unusual genetic abnormality causes Auro, a clever and humorous thirteen-year-old kid (Amitabh Bachchan), to age at a much faster rate than normal. He suffers from a syndrome that is similar to progeria. Although he appears five years older than his actual age, his mental age of thirteen is perfectly typical. Auro is a cheerful young man, despite his illness. His mother, Vidya (Vidya Balan), is a gynaecologist, and he lives with her. Abhishek Bachchan portrays Amol Arte, a politician who is idealistic, youthful, and progressive. Mission: to show the world that 'politics' is not insulting. Someone with a mission—that is him. The son of Amol is Auro.
Ghoomer (ZEE5 [OTTplay Premium])
Directed and written by R. Balki, Ghoomer is a sports drama film set to release in 2023. Shabana Azmi, Abhishek Bachchan, Saiyami Kher, and Angad Bedi are the stars of the show. Amitabh Bachchan plays himself in a special appearance in the film. A tragic accident causes the young batting prodigy Anina "Ani" Dixit to lose her right hand. But she finds new hope in the bowling of the cold-hearted and unsuccessful test cricketer Padam "Paddy" Singh Sodhi. He uses innovative methods to instruct her, hoping to change her bowling destiny. One of their joint innovations was spinning, often known as "Ghoomer," a novel bowling method. There are less than ten months till the Indian women's team qualifies; will bowler Anina be able to make the cut?