The newest daddy in Bollywood, Abhishek Bachchan is all set to visit Bengaluru to promote his film Players on Tuesday. “I’ve shot two films here and spent many a holiday. I have great memories and it is always exciting to come back here,” he says.His upcoming release is a remake of the cult film The Italian Job. “The story is the same, but the screenplay is different. The emotion and context of Players is very Indian,” says Abhishek. “I am a huge Michael Caine fan,” he adds. The remake has three new characters — Bobby Deol, Omi Vaidya and Bipasha Basu.

In the film, Abhishek plays the role of Charlie. “He is nothing like me. The quest is to challenge myself with every role,” says Abhishek, who has immense respect for directors Abbas-Mustan. “It is fascinating that such down to earth people make such sleek films,” he says.Lead actress Sonam Kapoor and Abhishek are working together after three years. “It is important for the actor to submit to the world of the film. Sonam does that beautifully. She’s done a sizeable amount of work and has grown as an actor,” says Abhishek. Reportedly, her role was first offered to Katrina Kaif. But Abhishek adds, “Sonam’s done a fabulous job. Katrina would have done it differently.” One actress in the industry that Abhishek has tremendous respect for is Bipasha Basu. “She is a very strong woman. I have seen her work out and can confidently say this. She can give any man a run for his money,” he says.

The experience of working on a multi-starrer is amazing, he says, “The creative energy is remarkable and you don’t have to create a rapport with new faces.” Every moment of the creation of the film has been special, he adds. “The team travelled across the globe for the shooting of this film. The best experience was in Siberia, which I saw for the first time. It was legendary shooting 100 km from the Arctic Circle,” he says.Players releases two weeks after Don 2, but Abhishek is not worried. He says, “Our industry is very close. All the directors plan releases together. Two weeks is the period we give our films to make the buck.” Agneepath releases three weeks after Players.

Abhishek is confident that fatherhood has not changed him. “I am the same. I give my baby time after all my work at 1 am,” he says. The name of the baby has not been decided yet. Abhishek adds, “Aishwarya and I do not believe in Janampatri. We will decide on a common favourite and name her soon.”Abhishek has Bol Bachchan with Ajay Devgn and Dhoom 3 with Aamir Khan and Uday Chopra in the pipeline.