Abhishek Bachchan calls himself ''OTT ka Bachchan', reveals why he thinks digital will be 'a parallel avenue to cinemas'

Actor Abhishek Bachchan, who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film, The Big Bull, has compared himself with dad Amitabh Bachchan and called himself the "Bachchan" of online content.

Abhishek plays a character based on Harshad Mehta in The Big Bull. The actor is already under pressure due to comparisons with the web series, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. Directed by Kookie Gulati, The Big Bull is slated to land online on Disney+Hotstar on April 8.

Speaking with Indian Express in an interview, Abhishek called himself "OTT ka Bachchan (Amitabh Bachchan of OTT)". He added, "From digital to television to screen, there is going to have to be a variety on how you tell your stories. And there lays the biggest hurdle for Kookie (director Kookie Gulati) as he made this movie for the 70 mm screen and now because of the situation we were in and due to the pandemic, he had to now adapt his storytelling style to make it conducive to a digital streaming platform."

He went on, "When people watch it on different platforms, they go with a different mind-set. Hence, these are three totally different products that you end up making, so I think there is room for everybody, I think digital is the future and it is definitely here to stay and it is going to be a parallel avenue to cinemas.”

Abhishek had recently claimed that he would not have got an opportunity to work on The Big Bull, if he had to audition for it. "He (Ajay Devgn) called me and said, 'I've heard the script, I'm going to be producing it, and I'd like for you to do it'. And it was a 'yes' right there. I got lucky because he gave me such a fantastic film to do, such a great character to play. So thankfully, no auditioning, because I am terrible at auditioning. I'm pretty sure had I auditioned for the film, Kookie would have replaced me," he had told Quint.

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Having made his digital debut with the the web series, Breathe in 2020, Abhishek has seen two more online releases - Sons of Soil and Anurag Basu's Ludo.