The world may not think much of Abhishek Bachchan the actor, but nobody can challenge the fact that AB Jr has delivered some really good performances over the course of his Bollywood journey, so far.

For many of his admirers, one such memorable performance of the actor was in Guru and undeniably, it is perhaps one of his best performances on the silver screen. For anybody who has watched the movie, it would surely be difficult to imagine somebody else portray the role of Gurukant Desai than Abhishek.

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His powerful and more-than-convincing performance in the film won him much-deserved acclaim, and with the recently-shared first look of Abhishek's next film The Big Bull coming out, we have an inkling that it wouldn't be wrong to expect a Guru-like reboot from this film inspired by one of India's most infamous scammers and broker Harshad Mehta.

Now, let us tell you why.

Right from the very subject of The Big Bull, to the genre that the film is set to deal with, it's pretty much in keeping with a Bildungsroman, or simply put, a narrative that traces the rise of a protagonist.

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That brings us to the most important part of this article. Who da fcuk is Harshad Mehta.

On the surface level, suffice it to say that Harshad Mehta was the brightest stockbroker India had seen in the 80s, who fell from grace at the end of the 20th century after having acquired a colossal wealth and fame through his trading secrets. Until one fine day, Harshad “Big Bull” Mehta turned into India's 'king of scams' who was served with 27 criminal charges against him. 

Before his sudden death, while in police custody due to a heart ailment in 2001, Harshad was convicted in four of the twenty-seven criminal charges against him.

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It was journalist Sucheta Dala who exposed Mehta and his accomplices' scam in 1992 through an article that was published in The Times of India. In her own words, this is what Mehta had been doing to hike up stock prices and make truckloads of money by fooling small-scale banks and stock buyers.

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“The crucial mechanism through which the scam was effected was the ready forward (RF) deal. The RF is in essence a secured short-term (typically 15-day) loan from one bank to another. Crudely put, the bank lends against government securities just as a pawnbroker lends against jewellery. The borrowing bank actually sells the securities to the lending bank and buys them back at the end of the period of the loan, typically at a slightly higher price. It was this ready forward deal that Mehta and his accomplices used with great success to channel money from the banking system.”

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Before the exposé, Harshad channelled the perfect 'Pied Piper' of the Indian stock market, who succeeded in fuelling the greed and aspiration of millions of middle-class Indian in the 90s. His rise made for the perfect 'rags to riches' story that people are eager to grab a bite of - a small-town boy who turned into the “Sultan of Dalal Street” until he was overthrown.

With Abhishek on the forefront of The Big Bull, we are hoping to witness the journey of Hashad Mehta the way we saw Gurukant Desai's. 

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