Amitabh Bachchan picthes for Bollywood museum in Mumbai

 Amitabh Bachchan picthes for Bollywood museum in Mumbai


Mumbai: Saying that he is “a proud Mumbaikar”, megastar Amitabh Bachchan today rued lack of auditoriums for Marathi plays in the city, and also pitched for a Bollywood museum.

“The Marathi stage is prominent entity and many of us are unaware of it. And they are unaware because we don’t have sufficient theatres for many of these people to perform,” Bachchan said at ‘Mumbai Next’ event organised by the state government.

Shamitabh Movie Review

The facility at Worli’s National Sports Complex of India is used for both plays and sports, so there should be an exclusive theatre for plays in Marathi and other languages, he said. The Prithvi Theatre, located near his house in Juhu, is too small, he noted.

Bachchan, who has had an over four-decade association with the film industry, said the city also needs a museum which will document the journey of entertainment world and how it has grown to be the biggest film industry in the world.

“I came here to look for a better job, entered the entertainment industry. But having come here, having established myself, I am very proud of the fact that I am a Mumbaikar,” the actor said. Drawing from his experience in Gujarat, where he is the brand ambassador for the tourism department, Bachchan said there would be many historical sites with archaeological importance in Maharashtra which we do not know of. “How wonderful it would be if we can initiate a campaign to inform people,” he said, offering his own services.

He also complained about the prohibitive costs and plethora of permissions required to shoot in the city. “Lots of us are moving out for locations because there are problems that we have seeking permissions to shoot within the city and sometimes they are so oppressive that we say no, we rather go out rather than face the problems,” he said.

Producer Ekta Kapoor said it costs Rs 2.5 lakh to shoot at the historical Gateway of India here against Rs 1.25 lakh at New Delhi’s India Gate. Tourism and culture secretary Valsa Nair Singh said the state has prepared a master plan for the Film City which includes a Bollywood museum, a section for Marathi plays and an amusement park. “The proposal will go before cabinet soon,” she said. She also said there are plans to reduce number of permissions needed to set up hotels from 146 to 20.

news by deccanchronicle

Amitabh Bachchan voice Power : Shamitabh Movie Review

 Shamitabh Movie Review : Amitabh Bachchan’s voice powers the movie

A reedy, scrawny, voice-less wannabe actor rides piggyback on a hypnotic, heavy baritone to super success in Bollywood : the premise of ‘Shamitabh’ is fabulous on many levels. Because of the cross-connections it makes with real life and reel life. Because of what we already know about the actors, stored in our memory banks. Because of its sheer degree of meta-ness.

Danish (Dhanush) and Amitabh (Amitabh Bachchan) are like ‘whisky’ and ‘paani’ : the former is an unprepossessing runaway, like a million others, who fetches up in Mumbai in order to become a star; the latter is a wasted alcoholic with a voice that we have known and loved, on and off screen. The coming together of the two– the ‘mixture’– becomes ‘Shamitabh’, super-successful Bollywood hero, aided and abetted by a bright young thing Akshara, a small cog in the big movie business.

Much of what constitutes stardom, the way it is constructed in the world’s largest film industry, is part of the film. The connection between how a person looks and how he sounds, and how that contributes to the making of a star, fashions the two halves of `Shamitabh’. And the predictable face-off between the two provides some of the film’s most alive moments.

The trouble is that there are not enough of those moments in which the two riff off each other, the others around them being just admiring ciphers. Large passages are devoted to Amitabh Bachchan and his soliloquies. Why, when we already know what a magician he is with his voice? They make the film a one-sided drone.

Also, so much of suspension of disbelief (how possible is it for an actor to be voiceless and not be rumbled within a moment?) needed to have been balanced by the sort of flourish, which makes us say okay, I buy into this, but only because you are showing it to me with quirk and smartness. ‘Shamitabh’ swings between being intelligent and banal, the latter more so when it begins worshipping at the altar of the nation’s most beloved voice.

Debutant Akshara Haasan, an intriguing mix of mom Sarika and dad Kamal Haasan, has promise. Dhanush shows what a real actor can do with just body language : he is fluid, twists and turns, and says what he wants to, without using any spoken words.

Paradoxically, it is Amitabh Bachchan, whose voice powers the movie, who is not able to break free from the pedestal he is put upon : the lines between Amitabh the superstar playing Amitabh the drunk wastrel are so blurred that the film becomes more paean than anything else, burying the character and the story.

‘Shamitabh’ had the potential to use irony and knowingness and a self-awareness, and the presence of the most durable star in Bollywood whose velvet-and-iron rumble has become part of the national soundtrack, to give us an unforgettable story of ego and identity, rejection and acceptance, success and failure. There are a few moments which sparkle, and we laugh in acknowledgement. But the rest of it is overpowered by unabashed reverence.

news by indianexpress

I strictly believe that drinking alcohol is not good for an actor says : Amitabh Bachchan

 Amitabh Bachchan: There are some actors who drink before doing a scene

The story of 'Shamitabh' revolves around the ego clash between two characters but Amitabh Bachchan says it bears no similarity with his 1973 hit 'Abhimaan'.

In 'Abhimaan', Bachchan and Jaya played singers who get married. Their marriage, however, hits the rock when the husband finds it hard to deal with the growing popularity of his wife.

"'Abhimaan' was the story of a couple where the wife was more talented than her husband. In 'Shamitabh' it's a story of two people. One person having something which the other person doesn't. Then comes the role of Akshara, who is a journalist. She is the one who will evaluate the two and get them to come together. The story is around these two people and their egos," Bachchan said in an interview. 

Directed by R Balki, who has worked with Bachchan in 'Cheeni Kum' and 'Paa', the film also stars Dhanush and Akshara Haasan. It will release on February 6.

The trailer of 'Shamitabh' shows the actor in a drunk state. Bachchan who has played similar roles in 'Sharabi', 'Do Anjaane', 'Amar Akbar Anthony' and 'Hum' among many others, said he delivers such scenes without touching the alcohol.

"He (his Shamitabh character) is frustrated in his life and sometime he takes the help of alcohol. There were many roles in the past where I had played such scenes but in every film the situations and the characters are different. Thus changes the way you perform on screen.

"But, I strictly believe that drinking alcohol is not good for an actor. There are some actors who drink before doing such a scene but I don't believe in that and will never do that," Bachchan said.
2014 was a busy year for the 72-year-old actor as he shot back-to-back films like 'Shamitabh', 'Wazir' and 'Piku' besides shooting his TV show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati'. 

   

"I am an artist. There are different looks for each film and I enjoyed working in them," said Bachchan, who collaborated with a Hollywood make-up artiste besides his make up Man Friday Deepak Sawant to create the unkempt look in his upcoming film.

News By  timesofindia.indiatimes