Mumbai, Sept 12: Amitabh Bachchan is not going to charge a fee for his Hollywood debut in The Great Gatsby.
On Sunday night, Big B wrote on his blog: “My participation in Baz Luhrmann's film The Great Gatsby is a mere one scene appearance as a friendly gesture. Baz Luhrmann during his private visit to India last year, had dropped by my office to meet me and presented me with some paintings of a prominent painter that was accompanying him. He called last month and wondered if I would do this small role in his film and I agreed. It is a gesture. I have refused any remuneration on this too.”
Bachchan's recent visit to Australia was for the script reading of the film.
He wrote, “I have gone down to Sydney and had a preliminary reading of the script with the entire cast and done hair makeup costume rehearsals. It has been a wonderful experience to be a part of their system and to observe with what detail and diligence they work.”
“Whether this little presence of mine is designed to open up ‘floodgates for more actors and collaborations' would be utterly presumptuous by any reckoning on my part. I would imagine if and when there is a need in their stories for someone from India to be tapped they shall do so; you have rightly observed some of the artistes from here that have.”
Bachchan is also not sure if presence of Indian actors in Hollywood films will bring worldwide acceptance. He writes: “It remains to be seen. I do believe that this phenomenon already exists. Indian actors are a recognizable force outside Indian shores as well. I may be wrong in my assessment here, but it has been statistically proven that a larger number of the world population watches Indian movies as opposed to Hollywood - 3.8 billion to 3.2 billion. Indian films have been a significant part of the lives of various countries.”
He further wrote: “Hollywood is a richer entity and has the advantage of a more universal language, but there are several examples that I have been personally witness to, where the Indian star, with all due respect, has garnered greater notice than his Hollywood counterpart. We must remember a most basic fact. We are the Indian film Industry and they Hollywood from America. There shall always be a prominence to American actors in Hollywood, just as there is a prominence of Indian actors in Indian films. A Shahrukh, Salman or Aamir may well be an unknown face in one of the towns in Midwest USA, but so would a Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise in Yevatmal or Giridih.”
Bachchan also feels that foreign stars don't really get their due in Hollywood.
He writes: “How many foreign stars have you noticed gaining prominence in Hollywood apart from that odd Omar Sharif, Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee? Even British artistes, which really should be considered, nation wise, as individuals from the same community, have a limited presence. And how many Hollywood stars do we see in our films? Forget Hollywood, even artistes from regional cinema in India have a rare presence in our own films - Hindi film artistes in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam or Bengali films and vice versa.”
