Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi BigB

Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi

Greetings to all for this day ! may there always be peace and fulfillment, happiness and joy, friendship and togetherness ever .. may this auspicious day bring into our hearts the love and blessings of the Almighty .. may we respect each other in all faiths … may we be considerate accommodating and in belief .. and may we all most importantly show compassion and unity …

It is the 16th of February 2011 and a day we in the family remember with great happiness - the wedding of Shweta to Nikhil … now 14 years in the making ! Goodness ! I can just about remember her at age 14 .. how and when did she become marriageable and with children of 13 and 9 !

The excitement in the house and the preparations and the laughter and activity, such vivid memories of all that we went through. The Sangeet and the songs that we constructed. The leg pulling of our Samdhi’s, the little games that the groom is made to play with the bride, all the rituals carried out with finesse and care and the blessings of my parents and of Nikhil’s family too. All captured for posterity on film and one that we often glimpse through at times.

And then the pain of parting - parting with a part of you. Her laughter and wit and presence suddenly gone. The house silent and empty. Her presence now filling the hearts of her new and permanent home now as a Nanda. From one Ma and Pa, she now has another Mummy and Papa. She loses her surname that she used for so many years and adopts the name of her husbands family and becomes their daughter in law. Her home is now her husbands.

Women ! Such a fascinating journey they lead as wives and Mothers and as, just women ! One just sits back and wonders in awe !

And now for some visuals of what I do for a living … ‘Aarakshan’ in Bhopal

not enough towels to dry up before the next shot ..

with the lovely Deepika Padukone, who plays my daughter ..

It was a day with daughters today. Slipping in and out from the real to the unreal. Shweta on one end and Poorbi my daughter in the film Deepika on the other ..

The scenes are getting more and more intense as the days pass by and we are all beginning to get in to the characters with each passing day. A fascinating tale now begins to evolve - the written word, the drama of the situations, the relevance of so much more than just enacting another one. Somewhere in the middle of all this you actually begin to feel as part of the moment being described by the screenplay. The early few days were left entirely to the directions of the captain. We were merely followers, dutifully following at times without believing what we were representing. And then as times passes by, the involvement of the surroundings, the meanings of the words and the situations gradually start falling into place. And now you so wish if we could possibly redo all those earlier scenes again, to better to improve what had been done in a somewhat unknown state. It shall never happen. But what is the harm in expressing it.

It always happens ! After it is all done and canned, you shall wake up in the middle of the night one day and get it all right. The lines the expressions the moves and a deeper understanding of the character. And then as you sit in the dark hall on the day of the preview or the public premier, you wish you could just dissolve under the chair and not be seen at all. Fear, embarrassment, apprehension, a feeling of incompetence and a strong desire to give it all up, because it had not been done well enough by you !!

Ah ! Well ! Someday we shall get it right … and if not, then thank you for the support and love ..

It rained here suddenly last night and early in the morning. There was a smile on the trees as you drove past them. That earthy smell of the ground that has been parched for months, drew deep into the nostrils, bringing back those memories of the days spent in my place of birth, Allahabad. A fresh cool breeze greeted us on the open set in the morning and the watchers on the rooftops from adjoining buildings kept getting their strong dose of screams and shouts from the production assistants …

This is such a fascinating profession. Reliving reenacting recreating each and every nano second of the day spent in the proximity of the camera, with the lights and the Clap and the Action … and then Cut !!

Time to end for the day. The canned film shall now be sent for processing with an adequate file of paper describing the activities of the day by the artist. In a day or two, the first prints for editing shall be out. And after numerous hours and hours of putting the final shape to the story, the music score shall be worked upon and the background and the songs shall creep in and then the final with credit titles will roll. After spending days weeks months years of labor, finally the product shall be out and introduced to the audience. And within a couple of minutes, a verdict shall appear - good bad poor indifferent !

Judgement shall be passed in 2 hours, by the people and critics alike. And all the suffering that would have gone through in the making shall be washed away in one fell stroke !

God ! I love this profession .. it is so finite !!

Love to you and more ..

Amitabh Bachchan
Source:  Big B Blog bigadda

Dearest ones of my beloved FmXt

Bhopal, M.P       Feb 16, 2011        Wed  10 : 22 AM

Dearest ones of my beloved FmXt,

I feel so miserable at not having written substantially last night and to have ever expressed the thought that I was not up to writing to you. This is not me and this is not done. I have the desire as always to communicate with you and you should never ever believe that I shall ever desist. Sorry. It must have been my troubled back, the late hour and my bobbing head, sleep ridden. But I am up and on to work now and the back is fine and the spirits high and the energy good. So the first thing I wished to do was to get on to my extended family and let them know of my dire circumstances which kept me from putting across to you, what I long to do at the end of every day.

I must rush now. They wait for me at the shoot and i must not disturb the discipline. More later of course and with love and more …

AB

Big B and Sonakshi Sinha signed for Housefull 2?

Big B and Sonakshi Sinha signed for Housefull 2?

The cast of Sajid Nadiadwala's Housefull 2 directed by Sajid Khan seems to be getting bigger by the day. While it is known by now that the film stars Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, John Abraham, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Chunky Pandey, Randhir and Rishi Kapoor, the maker have now managed a coup of sorts by signing none other than Amitabh Bachchan for a pivotal role in the film.

The buzz is that Big B's dates are available only post July which has resulted in the schedule ofHousefull 2 being a bit delayed. Besides Big B, the search for the third heroine also seems to have ended and the word doing the rounds is that it's none other than Sonakshi Sinha who has bagged the plum role. 

With a plethora of actors signed for this one, this 'House' is already getting 'Full' real fast.
IN NEWS BH

BigB at Aishwarya Rai's sister-in-law Shrima Rai's Godh Bharai

Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Shrima Rai, Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai's sister-in-law Shrima Rai's Godh Bharai

Aishwarya Rai, Jaya Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Shrima Rai, Abhishek Bachchan

Desired pictures of the students at the College BigB

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh   Feb  14,  2011   Mon  10 : 17 PM

Some one had desired pictures of the students at the College I was shooting at for ‘Aarakshan’ and so I took some myself since the ones being taken by the production were not satisfactory at all. In all, the youngsters were most disciplined and well behaved and despite some rather rough handlings by the production team, they remained calm and cooperative. Which indicates the kind of curriculum and management they go through in their temple of education. It speaks volumes about the staff and teachers and the way in which they are creating an atmosphere where certain basic traits of social behavior have been prominently inculcated in them. I have been much impressed and have volunteered to do a performance for them in their institution, of my Father’s works ! Just a gesture of my appreciation.

The other lot of pictures is from the shoot for the commercials for Just Dial, barring of course the rather dim print of a hand written letter, given to me in some haste by one of the ladies in the crowd today at the shoot !

Those that can read Hindi will be able to make out what it contains. But for the benefit of those that cannot I shall translate. As we wrapped for the day and I walked some distance to my vanity, a lady broke the security cordon and just wished to take blessings, with rose in hand and this crumpled note. I stopped for a while. She seemed very emotional and glad and respectful, which I think was some achievement for her. Combining all three emotions is not easy. The fear from the security is that if you meet one then you must meet all. Sometimes this becomes a cumbersome exercise. Not for me but for those that look after protocol at the locations. It is always most heartbreaking for me to deny a genuine fan from expressing themselves at moments like this, but … it does get out of hand at times and then I get the wrong end of the stick from security !!

Anyway, this lady went through and I took her letter and found it touching so I thought, reproducing it for all would not be too unwise. It is handwritten as you can see and it states -

“Amit ji, saadar charansparsh. Mai aapse sirf 2 baatein karna chahati hoon .. lekin sambhav nahin -

1/

Jise iswar ki prapti ho jaati hai wo bhi adhura reh jaata hai. Kintu jise guru ki prapti ho jaati hai useh jeevan mein sab kuch mil jaata hai. Is liye mujhe poora vishvaas tha, aap mujhe zaroor milenge ( Sudhanshu ) maharaj ki daya se.

2/

Mujhe aapka Amitabh ji se zyaada Vijay ji naam pasand hai. Kyunki aapko paana toh sabhi ke bas mein nahi, isliye maine ( Vijay ) naam ke pati ko sweekar kiya.”

Shrimati InduVijay Sonvani

A weak translation would be as follows - the essence of the Hindi written would never be the same, but ..

“Amitji, I respectfully touch your feet. I wish to speak to you on 2 matters, but it is not going to be possible -

1/

The one that acquires or possesses God, he too remains incomplete. However, he that acquires or possesses a Guru,  is the one that can get everything in life. That is why I had the fullest faith, that I would meet you. By the kindness of Sudhanshu Maharaj, saint.

2/

I like your name Vijay ji better than Amitabh ji. Because to get you is not within the right, or not possible, by everyone, that is why I have accepted a husband whose name is Vijay.”

I was deeply touched by the sincerity and affection of the letter and decided the moment I read it, to put it across to my EF. Sharing good feelings is at par with the feeling itself ! So humbling these feelings and so difficult for someone like me to reciprocate in equal measure. Thank the Lord for this medium where I can at least express my self in her regard, even though I know that she will never get to read what I wished to tell her. She did leave her telephone numbers, but I found that to be too intrusive to call her !

It is this simplicity of the common man woman that fills me with respect and admiration for my countrymen and women. The smiles of gratification, the respect that they allude and the expression of excitement that comes across when in their midst, is inexplainable. All I do know is, that its genuineness can never be doubted and what that moment means to them, can never be described or fathomed.

The solo shots of mine are from the Just Dial encounter of which I wrote about earlier. High end, slick and modern is what the setting was asked to be implanted. I do hope they got what they wanted.

I posted a comment from the great Paul Newman on my Twitter today on actors, their image on the screen and the audience reactions to it. If you can find it I shall be grateful to get some views on it by my dearest FmXt ..

T 279 - ” The second you step out of the confines of the personality the public has set up for you, they get incensed. Public reaction tends to keep actors as personalities instead of allowing them to act. Its a very corrupting influence.” ~ PN

Good night my dears .. with love

Amitabh Bachchan

Source:  Big B Blog bigadda