4 min readNov 22, 2013 12:05 AM IST
Mumbai,all of last week has been witness to a flurry of excitement — Sharon Stone,you see,along with Hillary Swank was in town for an AmFar Charity event,in association with Bollywood royalty represented by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan. But naturally,the event was quite the photo-op of the season and a lucky few apparently even got themselves a peck on the cheek from Ms Stone for upping their bid generously. Now how’s that for Celebrity Social Responsibility with a little help from friends?
Coming in the wake of Big B’s elaborate chat with Robert De Niro (THiNK summit,Goa) who sat in the audience through Bachchan’s discourse,and an exchange with Steven Spielberg earlier this year,besides Oprah’s personal visit before,the young Bachchan couple have pulled off quite a coup with this one.
A corollary to Bollywood expanding its presence around the world,such friendships and collaborations are obviously a good sign. They hint at the world’s eagerness to embrace all things Bollywood,a strong indication of its growing clout.
Filmmaker Ismail Merchant was perhaps among the first within the film industry to have understood the importance of friends in the international circuit primarily because his filmmaking ambitions went beyond Indian borders. Merchant wanted to make international films with Indian subjects and in straddling the two worlds,he rather sagaciously made friends with a many Hollywood and Indian actors; a combo that worked rather well for him. Along with Parmeshwar Godrej,Mumbai’s best know society hostess — he had Hollywood stars Goldie Hawn and Sally Field come over to Mumbai for the film premier of In Custody.
New Bollywood is following suit and warming up to the idea of making overtures to international film celebrities. That the opportunities to work together are on the rise,only helps their cause. Rai Bachchan had reportedly approached Stone at the Cannes International Film Festival,which she visits every year as a brand ambassador. But there are others too. Irrfan counts Angelina Jolie with whom he worked in A Mighty Heart,among friends,while Anurag Kashyap has Danny Boyle on his collaborative roster. Shah Rukh Khan has found a friend in Gerard Butler — they party together in Mumbai and international destinations like Dubai — as have Priyanka Chopra in Katie Perry who she accompanied on a rickshaw ride in Chennai and Mallika Sherawat in Jackie Chan among others.
Why,Robert De Niro was recently hosted by actor Anupam Kher who shared screen space with him in Silver Linings Playbook with B-town’s young Turks namely Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor in attendance listening in rapt attention. De Niro,even went over to Kher’s acting school and considering it has a few branches within India with plans of making a few more additions,the Hollywood actor’s visit could not have come at a more opportune time.
If Bollywood is leveraging its foreign connections for charitable causes and cinema,then Hollywood,is not too far behind. When Tom Cruise was in India to promote his film Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,it was Anil Kapoor who hosted a glittering party in his honour at Mumbai’s iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel with the upper crust turning up. Kapoor fetaured in a small role in the film but was an integral part of the promotion activities in India meant to drum up the buzz around the film.
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Anil Kapoor put it rather succinctly to me when I asked
him of new-found friends — “When a film is successful,sab achcha lagta hai. Everybody is a friend.” Evidently,Bollywood,courtesy the endless business possibilities it represents,seems to be good ground for building friendly ties.
