If you are a true artiste, you follow your director. This bon-mot comes from no less than Amitabh Bachchan, perhaps the biggest superstar in the history of Bollywood.

"An actor, as a true artiste, has to follow the director," Bachchan said in a freewheeling discussion of his art with his fans at a function organised by Enlighten Film Club here.

He regaled the audience while talking about two of his directors who could be said to be poles apart in terms of style and genre: Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Manmohan Desai.

When Bachchan was about to shoot the climax of Mukherjee-directed `Anand', where the title character played by Rajesh Khanna dies, he started preparing for the sequence two days in advance, pondering emotions surrounding death, loss of near and dear ones, etc.

"After two days, when I went to the set and shooting began, I blurted out everything within me, all that emotion, into the scene."

But Mukherjee wasn't impressed. "Hey, don't overdo it.

You are doing it too much. (`Itna Nahi Karneka'). Don't get so excited," he told Bachchan, ordering another take.

Mukherjee was "conservative" in use of sets and costumes, Bachchan said. "He would use only essential furniture.