Saturday, September 27, 2014

Amitabh Bachchan hails Farhan Akhtar's new song on women's rights

 Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has joined the list of admirers of actor Farhan Akhtar's latest song championing women empowerment.

Farhan has collaborated with music composer duo Salim-Sulaiman on the single 'Chulein Aasman' for his social campaign MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination), launched in 2013.

The song speaks about the importance of social media for women in getting them more opportunities and helping them become self-dependent. Bachchan took to Twitter to praise the initiative taken by the 40-year-old star. "Farhan Akhtar sings 'Chulein Aasman', more power for women... with Salim-Sulaiman.. FANTASTIC!" Bachchan tweeted.

T 1625 - Farhan Akhtar sings 'Chulein Aasman', more power for women... with Salim-Suleiman ..FANTASTIC !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n54h4HC8HcU  ..

Amitabh Bachchan Swachh India as ambassador

  Banega Swachh India' announces Amitabh Bachchan as its ambassador

Mumbai: 'Dettol - Banega Swachh India' on Thursday introduced Amitabh Bachchan as the ambassador of the campaign. The Bollywood megastar said that if his face and voice helps the cause, he will be "honoured".

The five-year programme is aimed at addressing the rising need for hygiene and sanitation in the country.

"There are a few causes that I feel very strongly about like saving the tiger, eradicating polio and TB. Sanitation has been on my mind for a very long time and when the opportunity presented itself, I had to be a part of this movement,” Amitabh told reporters Thursday.

“If my face and voice helps this cause, I will be honoured. I hope that like we successfully achieved success with polio eradication I hope we will be able to be successful with this campaign as well," said the superstar, who has been the Goodwill Ambassador for the Polio UNICEF campaign and the disease has been eradicated from the country.

With a commitment to making India healthier and cleaner by 2019, RB (formerly called Reckitt Benckiser) has made a promise to invest Rs.100 crore towards the initiative.

To kick off the programme a 'Dettol - Banega Swachh India' bus will be flagged off in October, which will cover around 400 villages across eight states - Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The objective is to create awareness about hygiene and sanitation through interactive videos, flyer distributions, posters, hand washing sessions and street plays.

IANS

Big B lauds first 7 crore winners of KBC 8

 Big B lauds first 7 crore winners of ‘KBC’


Mumbai, Sept 21: Calling their win ‘exemplary’, Amitabh Bachchan praised brothers, Achin and Sarthak Narula, who became the first ever contestants to win the highest prize of Rs 7 crore in ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, hosted by the Bollywood megastar.

The duo, who hail from Delhi, emerged victorious after answering all the 14 questions correctly with the help of four lifelines.

“There was a mission in the manner in which they approached the game. Right from the very start, they went about it in a manner that was simply exemplary. They used up all their lifelines, but they had the answer even before they asked for help,” the 71-year-old actor posted on his blog.

Bachchan, who has been hosting the gaming reality show for 14 years, said it was sheer joy to see the two brothers come out victorious.

“What a joy to see a 28-year-old and his younger brother of 23, playing to gather some money to be able to put it into the cause of providing the fees required for the treatment of their mother who suffers from ovarian cancer.

“Achin and Sarthak Narula, you deserve not just the highest reward of the show but indeed all the wishes for propagating this important message that if an ailment is brought to the notice of the medics in correct time, the possibility of a cure and its success is possible,” Bachchan added.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Some memories remain in some permanence | BigB Blog

 Some memories remain in some permanence .. sometimes !
Jalsa, Mumbai             Sept 18,  2014              Thu  10:11 pm

Work related memories tend to be like an open chapter that can be read at the turn of a page, in our life books. Many believe it is best to relate them or store it up in writing on it before it gets too late .. and one does not need to understand what ‘late’ means .. time speeds past rapidly and they know that soon the glands of our memories shall fall apart or not respond at all ..

So hurry up and write about what you need to write before getting struck by Alzheimer’s, or related defects with age namely dementia .. !!

That is the genius Manmohan Desai, on the sets with me for the film ‘Naseeb’ and the picturisation of the song ‘John Jaani Janaardhan’. He conceived this quite remarkably.

Since I was the waiter in a 5 star Hotel in the film, he wondered how interesting it would be for such a character when events such as Jubilee functions of films - a great celebration in those days - were held in the premises of the Hotel ! So he devised a celebration of a Jubilee function of a film, set in the Hotel where my character was singing and serving the guests, in the range of all the biggest stars of the Industry - Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore, Dabboo Kapoor, Rakesh Roshan and many more to name just a few.

How he managed to convince all of them to come over for just a day, and how he completed their work in that shift is a marvel in itself. He booked an adjoining floor at Filmistan Studios, where we shot this song, and would send me racing there to rehearse the next shot while the lighting was being done, so that no time was wasted in rehearsals on the floor of the shoot, and also to prevent the embarrassment of making the big stars wait while we got our act together.

His characters that he chose for me were always the common man, the worker, the guy next door, or the person on the street - Coolie, Naseeb the waiter, Amar Akbar Anthony the anglo indian from Bandra interiors, Mard the tangewala .. and so .. but always having the strength and the attitude of taking on the biggest adversary that came across. It was this identity that appealed to the front benchers, the ones that repeatedly patronised the films, in those good ol’ days .. far removed from what the youngistan of today does at the multiplexes ..

Man Mohan Desai had started very young and with the very best .. ‘Chaliya’ was his first directorial film, with Raj Kapoor as his hero, the one that had that popular number .. ‘chaliya mera naam, chalna mera kaam ..’ in Mukesh ji’s voice, a song that I used to hum often when home and still about to enter University, and one that used to upset my Father a lot, for he did not like the words … !!

Man ji thought out his plot and his stories on the slopes of the hill at Malabar Hill, below that famous outdoor restaurant, a landmark then and I believe still is. He would take his wife along to run his ideas through and they both would sit in that deserted forested region under a tree and create some of the weirdest ideas, but ideas that have become iconic and legendary now …

We would laugh at his madness when we performed his scenes, his dialogues, his ideas of performance … but we respected what he asked us to do, simply because we were firstly professionals and then we believed in the confidence of his faith and trust in the success of the idea. He was rigid unwavering and nothing but confident of his directions .. and they worked and worked magically, no matter what …

He saw the rushes of the drunk scene in AAA almost a month after it was performed - that is how long it took in those days to get a final print in some viewable state - since he was not present on the set when I did it. We were shooting two of his films at the same time in the same studio - RK Studios - AAA and ‘Parvarish’ … he gave instructions for the drunk scene and left to the next floor to shoot some action scenes simultaneously with Amjad and  by the time he came back we had already canned the scene .. he trusted his assistants in the compliance of the drunk scene and a month later when we were shooting the climax song and scene in this studio in Dadar, now defunct and raised to the ground with better real estate possibilities, he took me aside after the rushes were seen, and we sat on the steps of the portico of that dilapidated studio and he said to me .. ‘Lalla ( an affcetionate way of addressing someone), so long as I make films you will always be in them. You may not work with me, but I shall always work with you.”

And he kept his word to the last day. He never directed a film without me after that day !!

He was a middle class man. Down to earth and with those that belonged to the earth. When he gained success with AAA, he bought an elite modern apartment in one of the most expensive regions of the city and shifted there, after having it designed by the most expensive and creative interior designer. But he was never happy there. Within a few months he shifted back to where he originally came from Khetwari, a middle class congested colony in the interiors of central Bombay, then. He would call me over to his abode often. The houses were cramped and almost stuck to each other. One could merely stretch their hand from their window and reach the window of the neighbour. On those tiny ‘galis’ of the colony he would play cricket with a wet rubber ball, a most challenging feat for the most accomplished batsmen, and his kids that surrounded his home. We would sit on the first floor balcony, taking in the noise and conversations and the atmosphere of the air about us ..

It was Man ji that gave me the very first so called vanity van in the Industry. I would use it as a regular travel car for years .. until the ‘vanity’ became a constant with all the shootings and the stars, a regular now .. no one uses make up rooms … except at the YRF studios !!

On a brief sojourn to New York, I was woken up early in the morning by a telephone call ..

Man Mohan Desai had jumped from the balcony of this Khetwari home of his and given up his life …

They have not made another like him .. yet ..








http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/

Amitabh Bachchan Karachi moment on KBC 8

 Amitabh Bachchan’s Karachi moment on KBC


Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan got nostalgic when Pakistani actor Fawad Khan came on the sets of his quiz show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (KBC) to promote his first Bollywood film ‘Khoobsurat’.
(Source: Twitter)

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan got nostalgic when Pakistani actor Fawad Khan came on the sets of his quiz show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (KBC) to promote his first Bollywood film ‘Khoobsurat‘.

Amitabh Bachchan shared his strong and personal connection with the neighbouring country. Big B revealed that his grandfather was from Karachi and said he had visited that place for the first time with his mother when he was just two-years-old.

Meanwhile, curious Amitabh Bachchan also bombarded Fawad Khan with a string of questions like how different is the cinema there and about his fans.

Fawad Khan was accompanied by his “Khoobsurat” co-star Sonam Kapoor.  The episode will be aired Thursday at 8.30 p.m. on Sony TV.

My health is improving: Amitabh Bachchan

 My health is improving: Amitabh Bachchan

The 71-year-old shared the update on his health via his blog, thanking his fans for outpouring their wishes and support on the medium.

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who has not been keeping well for the past few days, says he is on the road to recovery.

The 71-year-old shared the update on his health via his blog, thanking his fans for outpouring their wishes and support on the medium.

“Thank you all for inquiring after my health...it’s improving gradually,” the megastar posted Tuesday.

The actor was under the weather and he says the cough persists, and it is acting as a hindrance during recordings sessions.

“There is a cough that keeps disturbing me during the recording, but it is being managed...love you all for this concern and the many home remedies that you suggest,” he added.

Mr. Bachchan is one of the most active stars on social media platform. And declaring his love for the medium, he wrote: “My love and my devotion to this medium remains as ever in the best of the best”.




News by thehindu

Amitabh Bachchan can play romantic roles

An encounter that moves Big B to tears even today

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan can play romantic roles, emote feelings of a child on the big screen or be the angry young man. But he says that for any actor, including him, it’s impossible to replicate the expression on the face of a poor, starving child given food – or when this child helps someone less fortunate.

He took to his official blog srbachchan.tumblr.com to share about his experience at the traffic signal lights where he comes across children, who “are of poor means, of limited resource or none at all”.

“Two young ones huddled in the middle of the night outside the platform of the local station, tired and hungry after working at getting that meal from those that travel on trains, the entire day – fruitless and without any result!” the 71-year-old shared Wednesday night.

“I once drove up to them and shook one of them up from his slumber as he lay without any covering off the pavement of the street, and gave him a packet to eat and a hundred rupee note!

“If ever I were to be capable of recreating that expression on the face of the little one, shaken up from his drowse, I would consider myself the greatest actor in the world!” wrote Big B, who was seen playing an underprivileged in films like “Muqaddar Ka Sikandar”, “Amar Akbar Anthony” and “Lawaaris”.

The moment was “indescribable” for him. What happened next further touched him.

“The little fellow did not look at me, nor where or who was giving him this ‘gift’, he merely shook himself up in a frenzy and ran … ran as fast as he could to another little fellow curled up in another section of the pavement, and placed the ‘goods’ in his hand … with an expression of an achievement that I shall never be able to forget my entire life.

“The other little one I discovered later was his younger brother … they had been begging for food for two days without any results! It will be impossible for anyone creatively inclined, to relive that moment on celluloid or any other ‘loid’,” posted the National Award-winning actor.

He said that his hand trembles as he recounts the incident and “eyes fill up voluntarily with what is commonly known as tears”.

He shared another similar experience.

“And … as I drive home after work tonight and entertain that young little girl on the street by my window, expectantly seeking my attention to buy those ball pens in her hand, I cannot – try as much as I can to keep away – resist asking her to hand me a few of her prized goods, pay her some money without asking what the price is, only to witness that smile, the smile of a million Mona Lisa’s, lighting up her face.

“I may never use those ball pens I bought … but I shall keep them close in sight … just to be reminded of that wondrous smile on the face of that innocent beautiful little girl by the pavement,” he added.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Amitabh Bachchan: Bollywood star's 10 million Twitter followers


 Amitabh Bachchan: Bollywood star's 10 million Twitter followers

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has crossed over 10 million followers on Twitter.

The actor is prolific on the microblogging site and is the most followed user on Twitter in India.

The 71-year-old star, who has acted in more than 180 films, recently made his Hollywood debut in a new adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

He also hosts the hugely popular Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

A waxwork of Bachchan at Madame Tussauds was the first to be made of an Indian actor.

In 2012, he carried the Olympic flame in London, a day before the opening ceremony.

Bachchan is social media-savvy and regularly uses Facebook and Twitter to connect with his millions of fans and his official Facebook page has more than 15 million likes.

"The actor is known for his versatility on the platform [Twitter], and has kept his fans entertained by frequently Tweeting on moments of national and international importance, sharing moments from his personal and professional life in real life, and connecting with his fans personally by replying to them directly on Twitter through over 33,000 Tweets till now," Twitter said in a statement.

"10 MILLION !! ON TWITTER !! YEEAAAHH !! Thank you all that follow me .. ! Next target 20 !!" an ecstatic Bachchan tweeted on Sunday.

Many of his fans also took to the microblogging site to congratulate the actor.

"10 million worldwide Twitter Followers Love, admire and respect You Mr Amitabh Bachchan. We love You Sir," tweeted Moses Sapir.



News by BBC.News