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. My art director of the magazine I edited at that time illustrated my narrative with file pictures and the result was a book!
Amitabh Bachchan: The Legend was the first biography on a celebrity structured as a conversation and yet all the publishers I approached insisted that I rewrite the content as a narrative. 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 his filmmakers and finally found somebody who agreed with me.
The 90s was an important decade in journalism because it introduced computers and the internet. The year 1999 ushered the electronic media and the first flash of the new millennium ‘paparazzi’, at that time understood as ‘euphoria’, was evident at the launch of my debut book in Mumbai’s leading book shop when the cameras could not stop clicking superstar Amitabh Bachchan!!
To be continued…
@bhawanasomaaya