Amitabh Bachchan turns 84 on Sunday, and the industry’s tributes sound less like birthday notes than a reflection on five decades of screen presence. At Whistling Woods International’s Celebrate Cinema ’26, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali put it simply: there is nobody like Amitabh Bachchan, and there never will be.
“There is nobody like Amitabh Bachchan and there never will be,” Ali said.
An era, not just a career
Ali, the 55-year-old director behind Jab We Met, Rockstar and Tamasha, was at the festival for a session around his latest film Main Wapas Aaunga. Asked about the actor’s 84th birthday, he placed himself inside a larger cultural moment.
“I will categorise myself as a person who was born in the Amitabh Bachchan era in India,” Ali said. Across more than five decades, Bachchan has remained a shared reference point for filmmakers who grew up watching him, and for audiences who still measure stardom against his.
From ‘never’ to ‘someday’
The revelation was how directly Ali once ruled out a collaboration. When he entered the film industry, he believed Bachchan’s stature made the idea of working together feel out of reach—not because of craft, but because he did not know what he could say to him.
An advertisement film changed the equation. “I had the good fortune of doing an ad film with him,” Ali said. “And then I realised that, ‘No, no. I can work with this gentleman.'” Now he describes the possibility of a feature as a clear hope: “Hopefully, someday I’ll work with him.”
Ali’s own milestone year
The tribute arrives during a crowded season for Ali. Here is what is around him:
- 25 years in the film industry.
- Main Wapas Aaunga has performed well at the box office.
- His daughter Ida recently got engaged.
- A fresh focus on giving something back to the audience.
Ali said the affection he has received makes him more aware of his responsibility. “I want to give a gift back to the audience. So now, when I’m making a film, I always keep that in mind.”
Privilege over pressure
That sense of responsibility could easily become pressure, but Ali refuses the framing. “I’m not ever going to take my work as pressure because I can’t even survive without it,” he said. For a director who marks 25 years in the industry in the same breath as Bachchan’s 84th birthday, it is a useful distinction: one generation still working, still learning, still asking for a chance to sit across from the legend.
What began as a birthday tribute ends with a question fans will keep asking: could the next Imtiaz Ali film finally be the one with Amitabh Bachchan in it?
Source: Hindustan Times
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