Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan “fluffed his lines” while performing a play during his college days, recalled veteran theatre personality Dolly Thakore in her memoir “Regrets, None.” The memoir looks at the worlds of glamour, fashion, theatre, film and advertising from the 1960s till today.

Dolly, who studied at Miranda House, in her book, said that she remembers Bachchan as “being shy and laconic, a well-mannered, very tall and very thin young man.”

She recalled the time when during an annual play, she along with Bachchan performed in Benn Levy’s “The Rape of the Belt”. She played the role of Antiope, the Queen of the Amazons, and Bachchan played Zeus.

During the annual play once, they both performed in Benn Levy’s “The Rape of the Belt”. She played the role of Antiope, the Queen of the Amazons, and Bachchan played Zeus.

She remembers a “photo of all of us lined up for our curtain call. Amitabh’s head is bowed, looking steadfastly at the floor”.

According to Bachchan, it was “because he’d fluffed his lines, and his mother had come to watch”.

As per a news report in PTI, Dolly talks about it all in her memoir which is full of wit, humour and candour.

The book follows her life and career – growing up in Delhi and how she started theatre in college, her time in London, involvement with social issues, casting for “Gandhi” and filming it across India among other things.

She also spoke about love, sex, infidelity, motherhood, commitment, ecstasy and heartbreaks.

She describes in detail how she was roped in as casting director for “Gandhi”.

Among other characters, Dolly writes how director Richard Attenborough wanted Rohini Hattangadi to lose about 11 kg to play the role of Kasturba Gandhi.

She also mentions how Naseeruddin Shah was keen on playing Gandhi and Attenborough’s willingness to cast him as Jawarharlal Nehru. Finally “Richard said ‘no’ to Naseer playing Gandhi. Naseer, in turn, said ‘no’ to Nehru,” Dolly writes.

“It feels wonderful that my life has found its way onto the page. It’s taken me eight decades of living, forty years of sifting through memories, and finally Arghya Lahiri (the book’s co-author), to distill it all into a book,” she spoke about her life.