When Amitabh Bachchan Said Jaya Bachchan Came Back To Films To 'Keep Herself Occupied': The Husband Remains...'

Jaya Bachchan, actor and Amitabh Bachchan’s wife, decided to put her acting career on hold in the early 1980s to focus entirely on raising her children, Shweta Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan. It wasn’t until 1998 that Jaya made a return to the screen in Ek Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Ma. After Shweta Bachchan married Nikhil Nanda in 1997, Jaya Bachchan returned to acting. In a chat with Rediff’s Vir Sanghvi, Amitabh Bachchan had explained back in the day that her comeback happened because the household was now ‘adequately managed’, allowing Jaya the space to focus on her career once again.

When asked about Jaya Bachchan’s return to films, Amitabh Bachchan said, “The home is adequately managed. The daughter is married and off. The son is six foot three inches, and capable of looking after himself. The husband remains more on location than at home. What does she do? She has to keep herself occupied. And so she chose to get back to acting.”

In the same interview, Amitabh Bachchan opened up about his granddaughter, Navya Naveli Nanda. He said it was the most exciting moment of his life. “You feel rejuvenated because there is a child all over again. You start getting up at 2 or 3 in the morning to check if everything is all right with the baby,” he had said.

In the same year, Jaya Bachchan, too, had opened up about her comeback to Bollywood. When asked if the actress needed Amitabh Bachchan’s approval before making a comeback, she had said to Rediff, “He is my husband, not my guardian, for God’s sake.”

She had also mentioned, “Jaya Bachchan said, “I was backstage all the time. There is no question of a comeback because I have been involved in various other activities in the film industry.” She was the vice-chairperson of Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd and chairperson of The Children’s Film Society at the time. However, Jaya’s sabbatical from films remained in the news for quite a while.

Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan got married in 1973, after dating for a while. Their son Abhishek Bachchan is married to Aishwarya Rai and they are parents to Aaradhya Bachchan, while Shweta Bachchan is married to Nikhil Nanda and has two children, Navya Naveli Nanda and Agastya Nanda.