You rarely meet a person who combines kindness and wisdom with freshness of perception and - at times - almost childlike naivety. Probably, it was thanks to these qualities that he got his first role in Danelia - Benjamin's doctor in the film "Do not Grieve!". However, according to legend, Bubu was chosen not by Danelia, but by his women - mother and sisters. He always liked women - and in his youth, when he was a courtyard boy, he was an eternal repetition (he finished school at the age of 20), and in hooligan youth, when he drank a lot of vodka, spit on the beauties and knocked on drums in ensembles "Dielo" and "Orera" ". And in adulthood, when the whiskey was imbued with impressive silver, and in the repertoire came the hit "My years - my wealth." Buba Kikabidze is by nature endowed with a magic gift to transform the life of those around him on a holiday, for this he needs only to smile and speak.
Vakhtang, you live on two houses - here, then in America?
No. Do I look like Agutin or Leontiev? No, they are not alike ...
Vakhtang , when does your day begin? I'm an early bird, I get up when I need to. I'm a fisherman, I'm used to it.
Do you have any morning routine rituals - except, as I see it, the first cigarette, followed immediately by the second and third?
There was a ritual that I dislike - porridge porridge, now the doctors found out that I oatmeal, it turns out, can not be eaten at all. And I'm so happy! When you wake up in the morning, you have a feeling that today was a day - or did not ask, and then it's better not to leave the house, still will follow the setbacks?
In the scandalous interlude of Vakhtang Kikabidze, it is also said that his son lives separately from his parents. With age, there are more and more days when people do not want to go anywhere. But because of the tours I do not often go to Tbilisi, but I have many friends, I need to see everyone. Now we'll talk, and then I'll go on a visit-there's a cold soup. A friend of ours cooks it in the morning. The guys will gather ...
It is clear that you like the true Georgians welcome guests and appreciate the feast. Vakhtang, and how do you think, where did the tradition of Georgian hospitality go? For us, there is nothing unusual in this. From childhood I saw guests in the house, interesting people came to my grandfather: writers, artists, politicians. We, the children, were allowed to be present, although we certainly did not sit down to the table. The adults pretended that they came to sit and drink wine, but in fact they talked about serious topics, debated the political, artistic, literary life of Georgia. I knew from childhood that the guests were holy, that the neighbors were holy, that without a guest, without a neighbor, without a friend, one can not live. There are, of course, people who do not have this feature ... I have visited many countries, and sometimes I was amazed: how do people live for themselves?
In Georgia , and in our house in particular, it has always been believed that one must live for the sake of others. But why did such a tradition arise? After all, every social norm has some explanation - historical, cultural ...
Probably, the whole point is that we are a small country. Georgia in that way survived, that everyone knows and supports each other. I'll tell you one story, and you'll understand everything. My first friend was Omar Mkheidze, a famous dancer, now a People's Artist of Georgia. There were a lot of friends, little money, they did not pull a wedding in a restaurant, and they had a two-room flat. But next to them lived in a four-room apartment of neighbors. So they broke the wall, turned six-room apartment, in which they played a wedding. And then a few months and lived - without a wall, because there was no money to erect it. And no one saw in this anything unusual - a normal thing. Thanks to the scandalous interlude of Vakhtang Kikabidze, readers will learn a lot.
One of the novels in my first film "Be Healthy, Dear!" Was on the same topic. Armenians and Georgians - this is our eternal motive, we joke each other on different topics: football, feast ... So my hero, the artist, friends from Armenia came from Armenia. They walk around the house - and he lives in such an old Tiflis wooden house - they are considering old family photos. On one of the pictures, a raft floating along the Kura River, Georgians are feasting on a raft. Previously, such a tradition was - to arrange a feast on the raft, drink and admire the surroundings. But now, where will you take the raft? My hero, Givi called him, tells the guests: "Tomorrow the raft will be." And, indeed, in the morning a raft floats on the Kura, covered with a luxurious carpet, barbecues are fried ... In the evening, after having satisfied guests, Givi and his friend go home from the station, the comrade enters the house, passes first, and we hear a cry: "Givi! And my hero replies: "Why did not you ask me what I made the raft from?" Then they looked at the hole together and said: "What a beautiful city we have ..." You thought up this story yourself or heard it somewhere? Himself. I generally like fairy tales, I adore the circus. I wanted to become a clown as a child. A man always, all his life expects a holiday. Art should carry a holiday, so that the person in the soul does not expect this death. It seems that when you sing "My years are my wealth", then you are a little flirting. Vakhtang, in fact you are eight years old, right?
Yes, I think, eight or nine ... A person should not kill childhood in himself. As soon as he begins to live as an adult, he is a khan.
Do you continue to write novels? Sometimes, if there is no other business. Now I have accumulated seven pieces. In Moscow, they really wanted to film a film, a picture of it, it was ready, but it was not released for hire on political grounds. They sent me on a disk - that's all. People lost money, and after that I did not want to put them in an awkward position, so I took my script from them and now I'm looking for new sponsors. The difficulty is that stories like the one I told you, you will not take in each country. Probably, in Italy such a plot would have gone to "cheers". It's pure Fellini.
Yes, in Italy, in Azerbaijan ... In Russia - no. In Ukraine, judging by the anecdotes, something like this can happen - you have nepotism, and anything can happen between kumovs. I know that you started writing novels in the hospital, being on the verge of life and death. And that fortune-teller predicted this situation ...
Yes. I did not take seriously the predictions at that time, and I accidentally got to the fortune-teller - accompanied Nani Bregvadze at her request. Nani came out from the fortune-teller all white: this woman told all about her past, although she could not find out the details, she was from another world, she lived in a mountain village. And then the fortuneteller turned to me: "Go, I'll pay you back. Or are you afraid? "Predicted my illness. I listened in half, because I never had a voice in my life. But it was all fulfilled, as she said.
I remembered about this hospital and thought: what kind of work? A few days later he began to compose. I could not hold the pen in my fingers, so I wrote down my stories on a tape recorder. After leaving the hospital, he transferred them to paper, then we made a script and together with Tamaz Gomelauri they shot a film that won many prizes, including the Grand prix of the festival in Gabrovo. Vakhtang, how do you feel about predictions now? What is your relationship with fate? Since then, I have repeatedly witnessed the predictions that have come true in the lot. Probably, everything is really written down in some book of destinies. For example, my friend, a well-known Armenian musician, had no children for a long time. And he and his wife were in despair. Somehow, when I was on tour in Baku, a friend asked me to go with him to the mountains to some clairvoyant - they say, the wife drags there, please, make up the company. We arrived in the village, we met a woman - a young, untidy dressed, with piercing eyes. I did not speak Russian at all and, I think, the movie never looked.
The room is covered with scraps of magazines like "Ogonyok". The clairvoyant stared at one of the pictures and, I think, enters the trance, everything is shaking. Then she turned to us and said to the musician's wife: "Find in your home an old winter coat of brown color, open the collar - there's something there, someone sent a spoil on you, and you need to throw it away." I myself saw how they found an old sheepskin coat somewhere in the closet, ripped open the collar and got out a bundle of hair. And a year later they had a baby. What a joy in the family!
But now in Canada, I watched the broadcast "Battle of psychics". There are many crooks there, but there are also really talented people. They found the missing, killed, saw who is pictured in the photo in a sealed envelope ... How interesting!
My son lives there, conducts his business. I stayed with him after a tour of the United States - I traveled with concerts in 19 cities and decided to rest and fish. Plus, the children organized a cultural program for us with their spouse: at that time a music festival was held in Montreal, we were at the concerts of Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett, Joe Cocker ... The children did everything to make us, the old people, enjoyable. Vakhtang Konstantinovich, you have been married for more than 40 years. Nature among the Georgians ardent, besides in the artistic environment there are so many beauties ... What is the secret of a successful marriage? We just need to love each other. How is it - you must love? Does love come by duty?
Duties are very important. They must be honored. The wife must feel like a wife, the husband - the husband. But if there is no love, do not torture each other. If you are a man, you must go so as not to infringe on a woman. We are not going back to this world for the second time. But, as you yourself have often said, a man needs to go sometimes to the left - for inspiration ... And this is his problem! Let her walk, but so that no one will suffer.
Vakhtang, what kind of father are you? It seems to me that the Georgians are very father-loving fathers, who can not help but pamper children.
My children grew up feeling that they were treated like adults. I have never heard this phrase in my house: "Dad, buy, well, buy it!" It's unpleasant when a father is proud that his 17-year-old son drives a very expensive car. In one interview you somehow said that you do not like big houses, that after moving to this house from your old apartment you could not even sleep, because you felt uncomfortable. Also have added, that could live on a chair - than already, so you are more comfortable. Do you really do not need a personal area?
My territory is where friends live. When we were young and toured with the band "Orera", each of us had a pocket atlas, and we crossed out those cities where we did not have friends. And they did not go there anymore. Recently found that atlas - many cities are crossed out. By the way, on the way to the US, I stayed for two days in Kiev, where I have many friends. I knew in advance who will meet me, at what restaurant we will have dinner, where I will stop ... This is all very important. You know, nationalities are invented things. If it is true that Adam and Eve were the first people, then we are all relatives and should live in love and friendship. What event radically changed your life?
My life changed in April 1989, after the dispersal of the demonstration in Tbilisi. When the student hunger strike started, I went to Maikop with the State Variety Orchestra of Georgia, which was then supervised, but every day I called home to find out the news. And on April 9 I could not get through the whole day, the line was busy. Then, in the evening, I still phoned and heard that my wife was crying. She told me that the soldiers had come and killed people with shovels. I realized that I had to come back urgently. But as? Flights to Georgia canceled, trains do not go ... And we after all 85 people - an orchestra, a choir, a ballet ... We found with difficulty the Chechens who agreed to take us on two buses. But only in Tbilisi, when I saw the first tank with my own eyes, I finally believed in what was happening. I do not remember how this evening passed. The son says: "Daddy, I remember: you went to the toilet, sat on the lid of the toilet and cried." Crying with impotence.
And it changed your life?
Yes. My gut has changed. I'm a jerk, I like to play the fool ... But after that day something broke in me. I realized that there is a force that can crush my life and the lives of my children.
In the life of every person there is such a power - death. And, probably, it's not so important, in whose face she comes ... Yes, probably.
Vakhtang Konstantinovich, tell me, does experience save you from mistakes?
Even an experienced person can get into a situation where he can not find the way himself. The table for this purpose was invented so that people would sit behind him, talk about mistakes and solve questions. We used to have such a custom in the mountains - when there is a contentious issue, ask for advice from the elders. Elders sat in a circle, shared experiences and decided how to be. I think if politicians consulted with the people, it would be better for everyone to live. Let's say.
Yes, the people do not give anything, because no one asks him. When the Russian president sent a telegram saying that I was awarded the Order, it was nice. But a few days later Russian tanks entered Georgia. Well, how could I accept the order? I would have spat my own grandson in my eyes.
What is the power for you ? Who can you call a strong person?
Hadji Murad. Morgan from Hemingway's story "Have or have not." I respect the peasants who decide their own destiny. A person should know why he lives and, if necessary, sacrifice himself for the benefit of his relatives, the Motherland. For me, in general, the Motherland is very important. He always laughs at me: they say that everything is the other way around, in the first place - the Motherland, then - friends, then - the family. You, apparently, have a very rich experience with women. What do you think that women value most in men?
The most important thing a man should know, even a 14-year-old: a woman needs to pay a lot of attention. It does not matter if you give her a flower or a whole armful. Attention is a great thing. And if she is happy, you will be very pleased.