Oprah Winfrey is the warmest person I’ve ever met: Abhishek Bachchan

Abhishek Bachchan is treading into unknown territory. The actor soon makes his debut as a television host. But he need not be nervous because two people whom he admires a lot were a huge hit on television — Oprah Winfrey and his father Amitabh Bachchan.

However, Abhishek rues the fact that Oprah will end her show in 2011. He says, “Everyone will miss her. Oprah is the warmest person I have ever met. Despite being so busy, she does so many things.”

Abhishek had appeared on the show along with wife Aishwarya Rai in 2009. Reminiscing about their interaction with her, Abhishek says, “Before we started shooting, she insisted that we sit down and interact with her for some time. I was amazed at her commitment and the effort she put into her work. The warmth and love we got from her were amazing. She was very keen to know about India and our culture. We all would have wanted her to continue and not retire but I am sure she has her reasons for it.”

By becoming a host on the small screen, Abhishek is walking into a territory ably treaded by Amitabh.So has his father given him some tips on how to go about his act?

He says, “My father is the best host. There’s no one to match him. He has told me to go out and just have fun. He asked me to stay calm and relax. He also advised me to make the participants feel at ease.”

Speaking about his father, we ask Abhishek about the Bachchan family business AB Corp. Earlier it was called ABCL and it had a television arm. Now that even he is turning into a television host, do the father-son duo have plans of reviving their TV production arm?

“We haven’t thought about it yet. We don’t want to do too much too soon. We have never seen our company as a mass production house doing many things together. Instead, we have seen it as a boutique house doing films that we believe in and back whole-heartedly. We don’t want to make it into a business and think about profit and loss. We want to do what our heart tells us to do,” he ends.