{"id":10734,"date":"2007-03-13T12:50:23","date_gmt":"2007-03-13T12:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/03\/13\/finding-big-b\/"},"modified":"2007-03-13T12:50:23","modified_gmt":"2007-03-13T12:50:23","slug":"finding-big-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2007\/03\/13\/finding-big-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Big \u2018B\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Writer Jessica Hines on what drew her to Amitabh<\/h3>\n
\"\"He is Indian cinema\u2019s biggest star, she is a UK writer with a love of all things Bollywood, but Jessica Hines has accomplished what many a Bollywood movie buff has only dreamed of. Meeting Amitabh Bachchan and writing about her experiences forms the basis of her first book \u2018Bollywood, Bachchan & Me\u2019. It\u2019s a quirky and well-written account of her journey, and although the godfather of Bollywood warns her \u201cYou will never finish this book,\u201d she delivers\u00a0an account\u00a0that is a must for any Bollywood book collection. In amongst her book tour of India, we caught up with Jessica Hines to find out why Bollywood and why Amitabh Bachchan\u2026<\/strong><\/div>\n

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The obvious question to start with, why Bollywood and why Amitabh Bachchan?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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I became interested in Indian cinema when I was at university and I was lucky enough to meet Amitabh early on in my studies. My understanding of Indian cinema was filtered through him to some degree right from the start.<\/div>\n

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We all know what a major superstar Amitabh is, were there any nerves on your part knowing you would have to prize information out of a man who is known to be incredibly private about his family life?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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\"\"Yes there were some nerves, but not about that. I don\u2019t see a biographer\u2019s job as ritually bringing my subject to his knees and demanding a carte blanche to riffle through their family life. My nerves were about the enormous amount of information there is out there.<\/div>\n

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The book is more about your journey in getting to know him rather than a biography of the great man. Was he happy with this form?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Yes he was right in believing that we can only really talk with authority about that which we have experienced.<\/div>\n

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In your opinion what\u2019s the best thing about Amitabh Bachchan?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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His determination to attempt to understand situations properly before moving forward with a decision. Someone in his situation could allow themselves to get lazy.<\/div>\n

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And dare I ask the worst?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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He finds it almost impossible to switch off but this is something that is bad for him not others.<\/div>\n

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You\u2019ve had an interest in Bollywood for some time now. Do you find yourself having to justify your fascination because you are white?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Yes. Indian’s can be as lazily racist as the rest of the world.<\/div>\n

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What do you say to those people who question your interest in the industry?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Get over it!<\/div>\n

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Finally, you\u2019ve conquered Amitabh, any other Bollywood stars lined up for the Jessica Hines treatment?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Nope! The good citizens of North Bombay can heave a sigh of relief. I am off to see a man about a quark!<\/div>\n

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Looking for . . . The Big B: Bollywood, Bachchan and Me by Jessica Hines is published by Bloomsbury and priced \u00a312.99.<\/em> <\/div>\n

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Win a copy of ‘Looking for…The Big B: Bollywood, Bachchan and Me<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer Jessica Hines on what drew her to Amitabh He is Indian cinema\u2019s biggest star, she is a UK writer with a love of all things Bollywood, but Jessica Hines has accomplished what many a Bollywood movie buff has only dreamed of. Meeting Amitabh Bachchan and writing about her experiences forms the basis of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}