How does it feel to don a new hat that of a producer “I am trained as and used to be a production boy on Mrityudaata and Major Saab during the ABCL days. So to be in the producer’s chair now is a bit weird. But it’s also challenging to be wearing two hats. This is the first time I am working for my dad’s company. After 10 years I have got the honour. I am very happy I took on the stress because Paa has turned out exactly as I wanted it to. You usually envisage a film in a particular way and it either surpasses your expectations or does not match up to them. Paa meets them exactly. At a time when you see some astronomical budgets, I managed to make the film in just Rs 15 crore all-inclusive,” Abhishek beams. Did father and son get paid? “Yes we did, but I was miserly with dad and made him take a huge discount!”

Did you ever even in your wildest dreams think that you would be playing the father of your father, as you have done in Pa? “No, no, no… And that’s the reason I did the film. I remember (director) Balki coming up to me about a year-and-a-half ago and he said: “I have a concept and I want to make a film.” I said, ‘what?’. And he said, “I want you to play Amitji’s father.” I said, ‘I am on’. I had no idea what the script was. Dad agreed for the very same reasons. Now we have made the film. It’s turned out beautifully. I am very, very proud of it. I am glad that the first film I have ever done for my father’s company is Pa. Dad is sensational in the film and I am really excited about the film.”

Did it feel strange on the sets playing Pa to your Pa? “It was great. When the camera rolled, I got to boss him around. The minute the camera stopped, he was back to bossing me around. It was fun!”

How has Raavan shaped up, because there were lots of unfavourable reports from the sets? “Wonderful, wonderful! It’s been a very demanding film. The most challenging film I have ever done. Which is what I say after every Mani Ratnam film. But that’s what Mani does. When we did Yuva, I was exhausted. I said, my god, this guy makes you work really hard. Then he gave me Guru. Compared to Guru, Yuva was like kindergarten. And now compared to Yuva and Guru, Raavan is something else. He’s really pushed the envelope this time. The film is very special to me… its Mani Ratnam; it’s the team of Guru again. I am very confident that it’s going to be fantastic.”

One wonders if Abhishek has ever known a life out of the spotlight. He explains that fans and the media do not only thrust celebrity status upon you. Today, when Indian cinema and its stars have become global exports, privacy is rare. Yet, the Guru and Dostana actor says he does “normal” things like go to Mumbai’s Worli Seaface for bhutta. . “My dad used to take me as a kid. I still go with dad.” Crowds don’t hassle them, he says. “People approach us and ask for autographs which is fine nothing wrong with that. Nothing has to change depending on how you approach your fame. You can do whatever you want. You make films for the audience and then you want to run away from them. I don’t understand that and I don’t understand actors who don’t like to be photographed, etc.”

He cannot shake off the brat tag easily. As the son of superstar parents, AB Junior is to the manor born. He claims he is the same person he has always been. “I don’t think I have changed at all since I was a kid. But I have no idea why people say I am a brat. I like to think they say it in a nice, loving way.”

The biggest buzz on TV has been the commercial you shot with Aishwarya. What was the experience like? “It was great fun. It was like shooting another film. We have done a lot of films together it was just an extension of that. Just that this time we were not playing different characters, we were playing ourselves. That was a new experience.”

Oprah Winfrey introduced Abhi-Ash as the most ‘famous actor couple in the world’ when they appeared on her show recently. Does he really think they are more famous than, say, Brad-Angelina? “Oprah’s a friend of Ash’s. She called and said she was doing a show on the most famous people outside America and was keen on doing something with Ash and I. We had a week off from Mani Ratnam’s shoot so we flew to Chicago, did the interview and spent time with her. She’s a wonderful, loving lady, very intrigued by Indian culture and society.”