Abhishek Bachchan's next role inspired by Big B's character Kaalia

The flipside to having a superstar dad is that it's hard to grow out of his shadow. And no one in Bollywood knows this better than Abhishek Bachchan. For the last 12 years, in spite of trying to carve a niche for himself, the actor has constantly been compared to his famous father.

And while he stayed away all this time from acting in a remake of Amitabh's films, Abhishek is now doing just that. He will apparently reprise Amitabh's role from the 1980 comedy Do Aur Do Paanch. Bobby Deol, meanwhile, has been roped in to play Shashi Kapoor's part. Produced by Kunal Kohli, the film will be directed by newcomer Akshaye Puri.

The latest, however, is that Anand Kumar (director of the upcoming Zila Ghaziabad) has gone on record to say that he is in talks with Abhishek for his next, Meerut Junction. This time, Abhishek's role - as Kumar was quoted saying - will be inspired by the role Bachchan Sr played in the 1981 blockbuster Kaalia.
"Abhishek is a wonderful actor and the role in Meerut Junction is a very rustic one. The character in the film would be similar to the role that Amitabh Bachchan played in Kaalia," Kumar said.

Earlier too, Abhishek has worked in films that remind you of Amitabh's movies, the Karan Johar-produced Dostana, for instance. Back in 1980, Amitabh acted in a film with the same title, which was produced by Karan's father Yash Johar. The sequel to Karan's film, which also stars John Abraham, will go on the floors this year.

In the past, there have also been talks that south filmmaker Rajiv Menon would remake the Amitabh-Jaya Bachchan starrer Abhimaan (1973) with Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, but that never took off. Rumours even suggested that the makers of the new Zanjeer considered casting Abhishek, but it didn't work out.

Now, the film will launch Telugu actor Ram Charan Teja's Bollywood career.