“I do not believe in superstars. For me the only superstar has been Dilip Kumar [ Images ] and he will always be. I don’t consider anybody after him as a superstar,” said Bollywood actress and MP Jaya Bachchan in New Delhi [ Images ], while interacting with Indian Women’s Press Corps.

Jaya surprised all of us with her attitude, her smartness and her haughty self. She was tough, but humorous as well. It goes to her credit that she kept more than 70 women journalists engaged for more than an hour.

She came across as a cultured citizen in her thinking about current issues, quite dominating in small things of life and edgy about her surroundings. She was looking for interaction with women journalists and not a press conference. Like all celebrities, she disliked uncomfortable questions.

Bachchan was quite irritated by two television reporters who were using their mobile phones incessesantly, sitting in the front row. At one point, she said, “My mind works faster than my hands, unlike these two girls’ hands.”

At one point she seriously objected to still photographers who were shooting her pictures while squatting on the floor that angle would not do her justice.

She took on reporters who started asking questions about Amitabh Bachchan [ Images ] and Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav [ Images ] which she refused to answer. She said, “I am not standing in the dock. I am not a thief.”

Later she relented and answered a few of them. She said that she had to face difficult moments in her party when she disagreed, but could not comment on it because she didn’t want to look undisciplined.

When asked was it difficult to maintain her own identity in her life with Bachchan? She said, “I belong to a middle class family from Bhopal. My father was fearless. I am greatly influenced by my father who was a journalist. My parents never sat down to teach me anything; they lived exemplary life to set a lesson for me.’

While lauding Dilip Kumar she indirectly conveyed that she doesn’t consider her husband Amitabh Bachchan as a superstar or even a super actor. It was an unforgettable moment to see such honesty and courage to express her view in front of cameras.

She claimed she liked Irrfan Khan [ Images ] and Raghubir Yadav’s [ Images ] acting, and also liked to watch Arsad Warsi and Atul Kukarni’s films.

When asked about her son Abhishek Bachchan’s [ Images ] handicap of acting under father Amitabh’s shadow, she said, “If he really has it in him, then he will overcome the towering figure (Amitabh). He must struggle in order to achieve. I know when Amitji came ( in film industry) people used to say ‘are you mad? Why are you working with this guy? He will never make it.’ Same people who said this have worked with him, regularly, later.”