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Author Speak (Day 1027)

By Books, Event

Out of all the performing mediums, cinema is the most sensitive and the most effective medium. It has the power to transform lives, the power to alter mindsets. Human life is mortal but cinema is timeless, it told us stories yesterday, it will tell us stories tomorrow. Stories of romance and relationships, stories of friends and family, stories of loneliness and longing, of pain and pathos…

My endeavor in writing Once Upon A Time In India is to revive old images like the bioscope we watched in childhood, to conjure motifs and capture the evolution of cinema in the process.

Finding a publisher for this book was not easy. The current trend to focus on controversies was an obstacle, everyone wanted to know what anecdotes I would be highlighting. My argument is that if I am chronicling milestones how can I sidetrack into trivia unless it is a part of the narrative?

I’m privileged that the best in the business – Penguin Random House understood this and respected the manuscript as it is. Not just that they had the vision to package the documentation as a fun diary peppered with illustrations of popular film posters and dialogues over the decades.

The cover image was solely the publisher’s idea. They were very certain that they wanted an Amitabh Bachchan film on the cover given his long running on the silver screen from 1969/ Saat Hindustani to Pink/ 2016 a total 47 years a record unbroken by any actor so far. What they were uncertain about was which film would best represent Indian cinema.

They chose Amar Akbar Anthony because in their words the picture brings a smile to your face and that is quintessential Manmohan Desai who would go to any absurd limit to entertain his audience. From 1977 when the film was released to now, the song still brings a smile on your face.

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9 February, 2017
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Chief Guest Bachchan (Day 1026)

By Books, Event

Every launch has its share of small and big tensions but if your chief guest is Amitabh Bachchan the hostess can rest assured that there will be no stress from him. He will arrive at the time promised. At the dot of 7 pm Bachchan  made entry in crisp white pyjama kurta draped with a Black Nehru jacket and black exquisite shoes.

As expected the cameras surrounded him and flashed till he was embarrassed and requested with everyone to allow us to begin the program. It took a while to convince the crowd and for the frenzy to subside but when the lights went out and we began the audio visual, a presentation from Film Heritage Foundation everyone was riveted to the screen.

08.02.2017. sofa 1When the 3-minute film ended, renowned singers Parthiv and Manasi Gohil traveled us 100 years of cinema with a 5-minute medley spanning five decades of Indian cinema. It was a spellbinding moment and our anchor for the evening RJ Siddharth Mishra took a while to recover from the spell and proceed further.

Amitabh Bachchan in the meantime was seated on the sofa in the audience, observing, absorbing and sometimes asking a question too.

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8 February, 2017
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Brainstorming Ideas (Day 1025)

By Books, Event

The creative meeting for any event is the most interesting because everyone contributes and it is the collective discussion that makes the event special. So there was the publisher Penguin team, the PR Raindrop Media team, the venue The Club team, the social media – Khyati Gandhi and the creative – Alpa Mehta holding it all together.

07.02.2017. setting eveEveryone sat with their notebooks jotting points and underlining what they had to accomplish and came the DDay and nothing was out of place. At 5pm when the sun had to still come down the singers Parthiv and Manasi Gohil had reached the venue for a rehearsal and the team sent me a picture of how the set looked. It was promising and I knew the effect would be spectacular when the garden festooned with trees sparkled with fairy lights.

The ambiance prepares you for the evening and we were lucky because there was a nip in the air or should we say there was magic in the surrounding as soon as Bachchan walked into the garden.

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7 February, 2017
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Planning A Launch (Day 1024)

By Books

It was decided that we will launch the book post Makar Sankrant considered an auspicious day in the Hindu calendar, little knowing that two more star books were planning to launch around the same time. We sent option dates to Amitabh Bachchan and he selected 17 January, Tuesday.

06.02.2017. invite

Our next worry was the location. It had to be a venue close to Bachchan residence and a hotel environment because cinema is more than indoors so we selected The Club in Andheri for its scenic surrounding. The next step was the invites and the backdrop and Penguin took charge and delivered both in record time despite a book fair in Delhi and many other events related to books in different parts of the country.

The mood was set and everyone was geared for a creative meeting.

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6 February, 2017
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Take 1: Amitabh: The Legend (Day 1023)

By Uncategorized

Most of the stories we read in childhood began with three famous words, long, long ago…

My story as an author began in the summer of 1999 when I penned a chronicle on Amitabh Bachchan profiling his life and times. The intention was not to write a book but to bring order into the many articles penned on the superstar. It was my publisher’s idea that the visual artist layout the manuscript using the file pictures so that it has a better impact.

He did and we were surprised that we had enough material for a book. Amitabh Bachchan: The Legend is the first biography on a celebrity structured as conversation. When it was time to find publisher all of them insisted that I rewrite the content as prose. I disagreed because I wanted to retain the voice of the actor and also the voices of those who worked with him – his leading ladies and filmmakers. My publisher Macmillan India was hesitant initially but had to relent finally.

The 90s was an important era for journalism because it introduced computers and internet in India. The year 1999 ushered the electronic media and the first flash of the paparazzi, at that time understood as euphoria, was evident at the launch of my debut book in Mumbai when the cameras went crazy clicking the superstar.

I’m often asked how long it takes to write a book, it is always a difficult question to answer because I have always worked on my manuscripts along with my regular job as a journalist/columnist.

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2 February, 2017
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Take 2: Salaam Bollywood (Day 1022)

By Books

My second book Salaam Bollywood (2000) by UK based Spantech & Lancer tells about my experiences as a film journalist. In my early days I was often asked how it felt to be a film scribe and if I if I believed in the people I wrote about. My answer was I did, if I did not I would not have lasted as long as I have in this profession. This book is about the other side of stardom. The better side, of creativity and compassion, of warmth and wisdom – that an outsider will never know…The irony however is that for those I write about, I will always remain the outsider. The book was originally titled Salaam Showbiz but my UK Publisher felt a title with Bollywood will bring better sales! I was unhappy about the change in title and more than me, Amitabh Bachchan who wrote the Preface of the book.

If I ever reprint the book I will change the title to Salaam Showbiz and then all of us will be happy like in our story books and Hindi movies.

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1 February, 2017
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Take 3: Take 25 (Day 1021)

By Books

My third book Take 25 (2001) is self-published, not because I did not find a publisher but because I thought I could do it on my own. I launched my own label called Sambhav and believed that distribution would be easy, it was a nightmare and in the process I lost the joy of just being an author. It is undoubtedly my most good looking book with a stunning picture of Rekha on the cover and is a tribute to the 80s decade, a lowly phase for Hindi films but a landmark in film journalism. This was an era of feature writing where actors shared their hearts with us and we lovingly spread their colorful quotes over double spreads of art paper combined with glamorous pictures. The book captures a leisurely era when life was innocent and people trusted each other, when relationships were baggage free and all of us searched for happiness in small things.

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31 January, 2017
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Take 4/5: Cinema Images & Issues (Day 1020)

By Books

Interestingly all my books were unplanned. The Story So Far was an initiative of the group I worked with at that time and Cinema Images & Issues (2004) are a collection of film essays – some explored as academic study, while some retained as stubborn memories that refuse to fade.  The concerns for the issues, I admit, came in much later after I had sufficient exposure and the confidence to disagree and debate on what I watched on screen and read on the subject. The manuscript was proof read and ready to publish and call it destiny that I met Mr Mehra of Rupa Publishers at Meghana Gulzar’sbook release on her father. He was looking for one more title to complete his year list and that title was mine. The book was on stands exactly a month after I mailed him a ready to process PDF and the rest is history.

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30 January, 2017
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