Jaya Bachchan has had enough of the question. Does her well-documented friction with the paparazzi risk becoming a burden her grandson Agastya Nanda has to carry? In a candid conversation with Variety India, the veteran actor shut that line of thinking down — and backed it with a piece of Bachchan family history most people had forgotten.
‘No Power on Earth Can Change His Destiny’
Jaya’s response was characteristically blunt. “No power on earth can change my grandson’s destiny. If Agastya is destined to be a star, nothing can change it. Agastya will have his own equation with the press. It has nothing to do with me.”
It’s the kind of statement that reads as both a grandmother’s conviction and a seasoned industry veteran’s assessment. Jaya has spent over five decades watching Bollywood’s machinery work — and occasionally watching it fail. She knows the difference between noise and consequence.
Her comments come after a string of public moments that put her at odds with photographers — on red carpets, at airports, at events. The most recent flashpoint involved remarks about paparazzi conduct and attire, which triggered a fresh wave of social media criticism. The pile-on was predictable. What wasn’t, was her counterargument.
The Amitabh Bachchan Press Ban Nobody Talks About
To silence the speculation, Jaya reached back into her own home’s history. She recalled that Amitabh Bachchan, at the absolute peak of his cultural dominance, faced a press ban that lasted nearly 15 years. “How did that impact his career?” she asked pointedly.
It’s a question worth sitting with. Amitabh’s estrangement from sections of the media — rooted in political controversy and a perception of inaccessibility — was significant enough to be memorable, yet inconsequential enough to leave no dent on a filmography that kept growing. He remained, through it all, the industry’s biggest star.
Jaya’s argument is not sentimental. It’s structural. Media relationships and audience love, she’s suggesting, have always operated on different frequencies in Bollywood. One doesn’t automatically govern the other.
Where Agastya Nanda Stands Right Now
Agastya, son of Shweta Bachchan and Nikhil Nanda, entered films without the most obvious leg-up a star kid can have — neither of his parents is an actor. His 2023 Netflix debut The Archies, alongside Suhana Khan, introduced him softly to audiences. The follow-up was meant to be a bigger statement.
Ikkis, directed by the meticulous Sriram Raghavan and marking Dharmendra’s final screen appearance, arrived with considerable anticipation. It left with ₹33 crore in worldwide theatrical earnings. Trade analysts called it what it was: a flop.
That commercial reality is the invisible context behind the question everyone’s asking Jaya. And she knows it. Her response doesn’t sidestep Ikkis — it simply refuses to let a slow start define an unwritten career. Jaya has previously spoken about Agastya’s determination, noting that unlike many of his peers, he came into the industry without a parent’s footprint to trace. He is, in her framing, building his identity from an unusual angle for a Bachchan.
Whether audiences grant him the runway to do that is a different conversation entirely.
What’s Next for Both of Them
Agastya is reportedly attached to a new romance project under the Maddock Films banner, with early reports suggesting he may be paired opposite Naomika Saran. Details remain unconfirmed, but Maddock’s recent track record — from Stree 2 to Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya — gives the collaboration genuine commercial credibility if it materialises.
For Jaya herself, there is Dil Ka Darwaaza Khol Na Darling (provisional title), a romantic comedy directed by Vikas Bahl that also stars Siddhant Chaturvedi and Wamiqa Gabbi. It marks a rare return to feature films since her well-received appearance in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani in 2023, and reportedly leans into a lighter register audiences haven’t seen from her in years.
Two Bachchans, two separate equations with an industry that loves to write them off and celebrate them in the same breath.
The Larger Truth Jaya Isn’t Saying Out Loud
Here’s the micro-observation this story actually contains: Jaya Bachchan is one of the last remaining figures from an era when stars controlled their image through access, not algorithm. Her friction with the paparazzi isn’t simply temperament — it’s a collision between two entirely different philosophies of what celebrity means and who it belongs to.
Agastya, like every young actor navigating Bollywood in 2025, will have to build his version of fame in real time, in public, on a phone screen. That has nothing to do with his grandmother’s preferences. And on that point, Jaya is exactly right.
The verdict on Agastya Nanda’s career won’t be written by photographers or critics — it will come from whatever he puts on screen next. The timeline has only just started.
