Dhaka (PTI): Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his celebrity family have agreed to act in a film based on the life of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, media reports said here on Friday.
The reports, quoting a New York-based Bangladeshi news agency, said 65-year-old Bachchan has agreed to play the lead role of Mujib in the film "The Poet of Politics" named after the title given to the Bangladeshi leader by the Time Magazine in the early 1970s in its cover story.
The agency said Big B's son Abhishek will act in the role of a young Mujib while his daughter-in-law and former Miss Universe Aishwarya Rai and renowned actress Shabana Azmi are also assigned key roles in the film.
According to reports, veteran Indian film director Shyam Benegal will direct the movie, which will be made in English and subsequently dubbed into Bengali, Hindi and other languages.
The Eastern News Agency (ENA) report said Bachchan recently gave his nod to the producer, expatriate Bangladeshi journalist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury , who was long been trying to cast the megastar for the Taka 20 crore (over Rs 11 crore) budget film.
"I could not imagine no one other than him (Bachchan) to project a person of the magnitude of Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujib). After getting the consent of Amitabh, I am now a relieved man," ENA quoted Chowdhury as saying in New York.The wedding of actor Abhishek Bachchan to actress Aishwarya Rai last year was perhaps the most widely media covered wedding event in India this decade. Pages and pages of media editorials and news and video and advertising footage were devoted towards Pratiksha and Jalsa, the house of the Bachchans. But after the wedding, a section the media painted Amitabh Bachchan as an 'elitist' for not inviting everybody to the private function. As names such as stars Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, ex-film star and high profile BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha, not to mention national level congress politicians like Sonia Gandhi were missing at the wedding.
One year later, in his blog at (bigb.bigadda.com), Amitabh Bachchan finally addressed the issue directly in detail and explained to his fans as such:
" I find it below my dignity to give explanations to a matter that in my reckoning, is firmly embedded in the private domain. But let me tell you this. Every member of my entire staff with their families, people who have worked and remained with us for over 30 years, drivers, cleaners, kitchen staff, peons, minders, office bearers, security, helpers - formed the major portion of my list. They came as my guests. Not to work that day or help. They were my invited guests. My family, Jaya, Abhishek, Shweta, my grand children and I all sat with them and looked after them, served them food with our own hands and nothing in the world could have given us more pleasure than doing that. For me they were my most important guests. I did not need anyone else, for they were people who tirelessly have worked day in out with us. Lived through our pain and glory, through success and failure, through sadness and joy and never ever changed. They remained devoted...committed and constant. Their allegiance and sincerity never in doubt."
Amitabh Bachchan, Juhi Chawla awarded for cultural promotion |
London, May 02: Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and
Juhi Chawla were awarded for their contribution to cultural
promotion at a function at the court house Kempenski here.
Lord Navnit Dholakia, NRI and Deputy Leader of the liberal democrats in the House of Lords, presented the 'International Award for Cultural Promotion' for 2008 to Bachchan last night describing him as an icon of the film industry. Expressing gratitude to the star, Lord Dholakia said Bachchan, named the greatest star of the millennium by BBC online poll, had been a remarkable ambassador, not only in India, but for Indians all over the world. "You have promoted the best in India all over the globe," he said. In his brief response, the superstar, who flew in here yesterday afternoon from Bangkok, thanked the organisers for choosing him for the award. Referring to Dholakia's remarks that his Scottish wife had seen Bachchan-starrer "Sholay" 15 times, Bachchan said, "We try our best to build bridges among the people." Kartar Lalvani, an NRI entrepreneur and Chief of Vitabiotics, a leading vitamin producing company, presented the 'Cultural Promotion Award' to actor Juhi Chawla. Chawla said she hoped to continue working to live up to the expectations of the people. |
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Here is the secret mantra of Ash Abhi's successful marriage life. He says that when it comes to sharing things, his wife Ash takes the first seat. He feels that in Indian society marriage works following this rule and he too implements this in his happily married life.
Ash and Abhi share a strong bond with each other and complement each others achievement. Family comes first for them and amidst their busy schedule they find time to spend with each other and with Amitabh and Jaya. They had spent their first marriage anniversary in the beautiful locales of Miami. Though Amitabh and Jaya failed to be with them for their hectic schedule, they interacted with them via video conferencing.
Ash is taking great interest in reviving Amitabh's ABCL which he almost shunned after incurring heavy loss. There are many films that Ash and Abhi are doing together. They are cast opposite each other in Mani Ratnam's upcoming project, Rajeev Menon's Dhun and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani. Ramgopal Varma's Sarkar Raj is almost ready to hit the silver screen where Ash will be seen in a totally different role with Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan.