Mr. Bachan gives 30 Minute interview on BBC
Bachan gives a 30 minutes interview for BBC.
Amitabh Bachan the Big "B" of the Indian film industry, gives a concise interview which extended for about 30 minutes, to BBC while on the sets of a film in Vancouver, Canada. The big "B" as termed by the BBC interviewer did turn out to be "Big" for his clear views on his stand on politics and cinema. When asked about his involvement in politics during the times of the assasination of Mrs. Gandhi, he said, it was a helping hand for his friend during difficult times. He realizes the complexity and the intense nature of Indian politics and the big need to be very much informed in order to be a player in that arena. Attempts on him trying to come to the forefront in politics, he said, was a failure and said, politics is not meant for him. Reiterating the necessity of being a well-prepared man for those grounds, he repeated that politics is much complex and difficult and that he realized his failure, proving himself to be a person with clear thoughts once again.
Calling Indian cinema as ground breaking and different from cinema, world over, he said, the Indian films gives importance to family ties and relationship and that Indian films are now being accepted slowly at global levels. He highlights the acceptance of Indian cinema in Japan, where surprisingly, the Japanese has taken to the likes and heroism of Rajanikant, the south Indian matinee idol. He quoted that the tamil film called "Muthu" acted by Rajanikanth was the biggest hit in Japan some recent years ago. While walking down the streets of North Africa, a man comes to him singing a song from his film although, he did not know the meaning of that song, he says, is a clear acceptance of Indian films across. He says, the film shows emotions of varied kinds through songs and movements as he terms it, are now being accepted in the west too. Songs has become a major part of western films and he calls this a universal emotion. Again, he said, whatever we do in Indian films is close to our culture and is about joined family. Although this will be differed with opinions from enthusiasts and film lovers across, with classical films and subjective films coming from India, it does show the importance of songs and movements on big screens, which is an important aspect of this powerful media. These again, he relates to Mahabarat and Ramayan from where this style evolutes.
Opining on Russians views, he says that a Russian explained to him about Indian cinema as follows. "When you walk out of a theater, you have a smile on your face and dry tears."
One important question was about he being called as the biggest star of 1999 as brought out by the BBC poll. It was interesting to hear him say, that the result of that BBC poll was an error in the computer and was not likely to be true.
Asked if he goes to see cinema, he said yes, he likes to stand in lines with a popcorn and likes the atmosphere.
Another interesting thing was his opinion on Bollywood. He said, he dislikes to be called bollywood and that it needs to be just called "Indian Cinema" and that bollywood is an ugly word. He said, some smart reporter who had to convince his editor coined it.
Weather you call it by ugly names or by any name, it is a fact that "Indian Cinema" is gaining ground and is being appreciated by art lovers world over. After all, where there is art there is culture.