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Journalism of Courage
After being repeatedly targeted as being more loyal to his home state and giving back little to Maharashtra and Mumbai, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan seems to be answering his detractors like Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in his own way — his revived entertainment company Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL) is this year set to produce and finance its first Marathi movie.
Responding to a query posted on his blog, Bachchan has written today, “Yes we do make and produce films for regional cinema. We have, that is AB Corp, has produced films in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and now as you rightly ask, in Marathi too. Umesh Kulkarni, a renowned and decorated director is making this under our banner and we are financing it.”
ABCL, one of the first corporate movie production houses in Bollywood, was in the red for several years after bringing the Miss World competition to India in 1996. Last year, they declared a dividend for the first time in eight years.
The yet-to-be-named Marathi film, which is set around the life of a seven or eight-year-old, is to be directed by the acclaimed Marathi film director Umesh Kulkarni, whose recent film Valu received much praise at international festivals.
ABCL’s decision to produce a Marathi film comes months after the MNS and Raj Thackeray criticised Bachchan for not doing much for the state or Mumbai. While Bachchan has largely kept away from the debate, he had said that Maharashtra is his “karmabhoomi”, that he remains grateful to Mumbai for giving him fame, and that he would never leave the city.
“In the past too I have encouraged good filmmakers,” Bachchan has written on his blog. “Two years ago, when a Marathi film was selected for the Oscars and the maker did not have money to go to USA, we made a substantial monetary contribution in order that he could travel and fulfill his obligations in presenting his film to the Academy.”
Bachchan’s other involvement with Marathi cinema has been a guest appearance in a film produced by Deepak Sawant, his personal makeup man.
