Bachchan launches Bollywood book despite aversion to name

MACAU - Despite his aversion to the term “Bollywood”, screen legend Amitabh Bachchan had no hesitation in commending a book bearing the title “Bollywood in Posters” at the start of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards weekend here Thursday.

Film historian S.M.M. Ausaja put together the weighty volume which carries posters from the start of Indian cinema, as Bachchan preferred to refer to it, even as he commended Ausaja, without mentioning the title of the book.

Initially he just accepted the first copy of the book to launch it, but later Bachchan returned to the podium and asked for a microphone to talk briefly about it.

Bachchan said in the days before the advent of the wide range of media available today to promote films, the public relied almost exclusively on posters for all their information on Bollywood.

In his foreword to the book, Bachchan wrote: “Posters have been an integral and the most important ingredient in the realm of information and marketing of films. They tell us within the brevity of a few square meters what the product is all about and why it is essential for us to buy that coveted ticket to find our way into the confines of this darkened hall, where paper and painting shall transform magically into moving images.”

Bachchan has been known to react at the use of the term ‘Bollywood’ to describe the Indian film industry, despite its widespread international usage today, even writing about his aversion to the term on his blog.