New Delhi, December 1
This question was doing the rounds in Parliament today as the superstar’s friend, philosopher and guide Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh took up cudgels on his behalf to complain that the Big B had been roundly insulted by the information and broadcasting ministry.
A peeved SP leader met information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi today and drew his attention to the correspondence exchanged between the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) and Amitabh Bachchan to protest the treatment meted out to the ageing Bollywood star.
From all accounts, the Big B’s protest and Amar Singh’s whine appear to be nothing but a classic case of sour grapes. If film industry insiders are to be believed the two are sulking because Big B’s bete noire, current Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh, was invited as the chief guest at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.
Bachchan, on the other hand, was handed out a routine invitation for the premiere of his latest film, Ritupurno Ghosh’s ‘The Last Lear’. Needless to say, Bachchan declined the invite.
However, that’s not the end of the matter. He has since dispatched Amar Singh to lodge protest with the information and broadcasting ministry.
The Big B, it is learnt, has taken exception to the letter he received from the DFF, which thanked him for offering his latest movie for a premiere screening at the Goa fest and invited him for the show on November 30. The DFF offered to foot his hotel and travel bills and asked him to coordinate his plans with a DFF official.
The DFF promptly received a curt letter from Big B saying he had never offered his film for a special screening at the international film festival and that he was unable to attend since he was preoccupied.
However, inquiries have revealed that it was the film’s producer who made this offer on Big B’s behalf when the movie was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It is learnt he also promised that the Big B would put in an appearance to promote his film.
I&B ministry officials were at pains to point out that there was nothing insulting or incorrect in the letter they had written to Amitabh. In fact, they said, similar invitation letters had gone out to all directors, producers and stars whose films were being screened at the festival. Except Bachchan nobody else objected to the tone and tenor of the letter, it was stated.
This is not the first time that Amitabh Bachchan has complained that he is being harassed and insulted by the present dispensation because of his estrangement with the Nehru-Gandhi family. The I&B ministry denies it has any instructions to show down the Big B. If this was so, he would not have received the national film award for his performance in the film Black, they point out.
