All $1,000 seats sold out as 11-city world tour featuring top film stars has its debut tonight

Jul 18, 2008 04:30 AM

Prithi Yelaja
Special to the Star

If Indian film legend Amitabh Bachchan hadn't apologized for his "dress code" at a news conference in Toronto you might have just thought he had perfected rumpled chic with his black leather jacket, white shirt, jeans, red scarf and sunglasses.

As it turns out, British Airways lost his luggage, so he was sporting the same clothes he wore when he left India two days ago.

That tidbit made national headline news in India after Bachchan, an avid blogger, posted it on the Web upon arrival.

Thankfully, he said, the elaborate costumes for Unforgettable – a song and dance extravaganza that kicks off its 11-city world tour in Toronto tonight at Rogers Centre – arrived safely ahead of time.

The Bachchan clan is indisputably the first family of Bollywood, attracting throngs of fans wherever they appear in the world.

Patriarch Amitabh Bachchan, the veteran of nearly 300 films, is headlining the show along with his son Abhishek Bachchan and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, often referred to as the Brad and Angelina of Bollywood. Joining them are a raft of other A-list Bollywood stars such as Preity Zinta, Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty.


Abhishek belongs to the next generation of Indian actors and his glam quotient shot up when he wed Rai, a former Miss World, in April 2007.

The Indian film industry is the largest in the world, eclipsing even Hollywood, selling about 3.6 billion movie tickets a year.

"I'm 66 now and it looks a bit ridiculous for me wanting to come onstage again," Amitabh Bachchan, a 40-year veteran of Indian films, said yesterday. Indeed, Bachchan had vowed his live show in 1983 would be his last.

"Concerts are very laborious and tiring," he said. ``But once you see the crowds and their love and affection and cheering, it makes up for everything.... The kids said it would be nice if you came along so I said fine."

In response to one journalist, who dubbed the tour "Unaffordable" due to the pricey tickets, which initially ranged from $100 to $1,000, Bachchan replied, "I don't price tickets." He then quipped, "But if you're unable to get those tickets, come up to my room. I'll sing and dance for you."

As of yesterday, tickets sales were running at 80 per cent, prompting organizers to slash the lowest price to $65, though 150 floor seats at $1,000 each were sold out.

Fans will get to see Bachchan perform song and dance numbers from old Bollywood flicks such as Don, Silsila and Laawaris.

But the show-stopper will likely be Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya together reviving "Kajra Re" from their hit movie Butny Aur Babli. The trio are a Bollywood goldmine, fresh off the success of their latest movie, Sarkar Raj.

"I'm nervous but also excited," said Abhishek, who has acted in about 35 films. He promised dance sequences from Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna – which had a Gala screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006 – including the upbeat "Where's the Party Tonight" and "Rock N Roll Soniye."

"Indian culture is a very musical culture," said Abhishek, 32, with an easy smile. "We like to celebrate every occasion. Our films are full of song and dance, so for us it's a very natural thing....

"Indian cinema has burst onto a world stage and aroused a lot of interest in a Western audience, so yes we expect people who are not only from the Indian subcontinent to come to the show. We'll convert them once they see it, I assure you that."

Toronto was chosen to premiere the tour because the "city is very close to our hearts. It's a city that's always given us a lot of love and affection," Abhishek said, referring to the thousands of fans who patiently waited hours in the cold outside the Guru premiere in January 2007.

Holding court across the room during interviews with the press, Aishwarya told of how she came down with German measles and was confined to home for 21 days earlier this year. Abhishek would come back from show rehearsals and teach her the steps.

Aishwarya said she consciously slowed the pace of her life, wanting to savour her new role as wife.

"At the end of last year, I decided to take six months off making movies. Five years ago, three days off from work was unthinkable. Six months of not working would have been crazy," said Aishwarya, 34.

As for having children, "Yeah we'd love to. It'll happen when it's meant to be."

The show is truly a family affair with Bachchan's wife, Jaya Bhaduri, a former actor, also along for the tour, though not expected to perform. The senior Bachchans live with Abhishek and Aishwarya in an extended family in Mumbai.

Ever modest, Bachchan denies being the star of Unforgettable. "I'm not the draw at all. It's all the younger stars today. It's just great fun to be with the family and relive some of the old memories, and connect with the audiences that watch our films.

"It's beyond the twilight of my life. I'm just faking it and hoping it lasts, but even if it doesn't that's fine, too."


http://www.thestar.com/Article/462567