‘Abhishek Bachchan didn’t just play me in I Want To Talk, he understood me,’ says Arjun Sen – Exclusive

‘Abhishek Bachchan didn’t just play me in I Want To Talk, he understood me,’ says Arjun Sen – Exclusive

I Want To Talk, directed by Shoojit Sircar and anchored by Abhishek Bachchan, has opened a wider conversation about resilience and the emotional weight of survival. Based on the life of Arjun Sen, who outlived a 100-day prognosis and went through more than twenty surgeries, the film attempts to capture the humour, vulnerability and grit that shaped his journey.

As viewers respond to Abhishek’s still, grounded performance, Arjun revisited what it felt like to watch someone inhabit some of the hardest chapters of his life. For Abhishek, it wasn’t a performance that could be approached casually; it required a deep understanding of a man rebuilding his identity piece by piece after his body and life were torn apart.

Arjun remembers the first scene he ever watched Abhishek perform, and it set the tone for everything that followed. "I saw him in one of the toughest scenes, standing in front of the mirror and talking to himself, ‘You betrayed me'. It wasn’t about the lines. It was the weight of everything unsaid. In that moment, I knew he wasn’t imitating me, he was understanding me.”

What stayed with Arjun was not just the craft, but the man behind it. “What I realized was that beyond the actor, beyond the fame, there is someone incredibly observant and deeply caring. One day I fell asleep on the couch because I needed a nap, and he quietly shifted scenes around so I wouldn’t be disturbed. He calls me Arjun da, and treated me with a warmth that had nothing to do with cinema.”

Arjun says the performance came alive through details most people would overlook. “There’s a moment where he sits in a very specific way, supporting the back of his head. After my surgery, my jaw moved fifteen millimetres, and sometimes I need to hold it like that because of headaches.”

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Arjun never wanted to instruct anyone on how to portray him. “This was Shoojit Sircar’s film, and I didn’t want to interfere. What mattered was how he saw the story.” Instead of giving cues, he shared feelings. “When life gets tough and the headwind is too strong to move forward, I tell myself to close my eyes, breathe, and take a U-turn. Suddenly the headwind becomes a tailwind. These were the kinds of things Abhishek and I discussed.”

Then came the coincidence that made their bond feel destined. On the day Arjun completed 10,000 days of survival, he discovered it was also Abhishek Bachchan’s birthday. “I woke up my wife, we celebrated, and when I saw the news, I reached out to him. We ended up having a beautiful conversation that felt bigger than either of us.”

For Arjun, the film gave him more than representation; it gave him connection. “Abhishek didn’t just do a great job as an actor. The fact that such a good human being played me felt like a blessing.”