Our films are making a huge impact globally: Amitabh Bachchan

Critics all over the world have been unanimously appreciative about your performance in The Great Gatsby Does the criticsrsquo opinion matter to you at this juncture in your career I think critics give a very unbiased opinion that any product that we make they are able to see the faults that we perhaps donrsquot It is their opinion on many occasions that really coerces the general public to watch a film This is more prevalent in the West where a criticrsquos opinion is given great value Here not so much because there is such a diversity of language The true reviews are not really read by everybody perhaps thatrsquos the reason why they donrsquot influence everyone so much PicAFP The Great Gatsby was given a lot of attention because it is an iconic book F Scott Fitzgerald was a renowned writer and the recreation of the 1920s was something everyone looked forward to It was the time when the First World War had ended and it was this age of extravagance and everything was booming just before the big economic crash that happened in the US This movie has been made thrice Baz Luhrmann has always had a different approach to the way he projects a film It is wonderful to see that different interpretations are accepted worldwide Cannes doesnrsquot usually entertain films that have been released earlier But this was the opening film in spite of the premiere being held 10 days ago in the US It just goes to show the prominence they gave the film How did you get involved in it I just did it as a friendly gesture I didnrsquot do it as a deliberate move to step into another world When Luhrmann called me he said ldquoIt is a small role not worthy of your staturerdquo Laughs I donrsquot know what he was thinking but I said yes I enjoyed the experience and as an artiste it was a great opportunity to work in the same medium in a different atmosphere I always knew that they had a particular way of working but being right in the middle of that every moment was nice Talking about the Cannes film festival or other festivals abroad do you think we Indians are making a difference or are we just skimming the surface When you ask this question you will have to go back thinking what we did 50 years ago That was the time when cinema was not considered a noble profession in our own country I remember when we were young we were not open to watching any and every film Our parents would first check it out to see whether it was worthy for us to watch From that mindset to grow to a stage where the world honours and respects our cinema is a huge achievement We are different in our approach the way we make our films and the way we tell our stories Thankfully we havenrsquot changed the way we make movies but people in the West have changed the way they look at our films Is it also because our young filmmakers are more confident about our identity Most certainly I am proud of the new generation of filmmakers who are not just experimenting but also have this astonishing selfbelief that what they are doing is correct Look at movies such as Gangs of Wasseypur Kahaani Dirty Picture Vicky Donorhellipthey are not necessarily the typical fare and it is nice to see these films doing extremely well It is a remarkable change Many of our filmmakers are invited to international festivals so there is a certain awakening about India in general I personally have a different argument on this Ever since the economic liberalisation in the rsquo90s everything about India has suddenly become important and good The world loves economics Laughs We used to be criticised and told that our biggest problem was population Now it is looked at as a consumer base Where can you find about 125 billion consumers When their in the US number one TV show reaches 12 million viewers they open champagne We take care of that in Bandra alone KBC alone is viewed by 250 million people Hence our dress our food our politics our filmshellipthere is a general liking for India all of a sudden Do you think there is a need for our films to be marketed better That is an area where we need to learn from the Americans It is just incredible how they think and they seem to have the finest marketing brains In Cannes alone there were about 2025 top executives from Warner Bros to promote The Great Gatsby Yes they have huge amounts of money but they start planning even before the studio decides to make a film In fact sometimes the marketing team advises the studio whether they should be making a movie or not The way they marketed The Great Gatsby was unbelievable When Steven Speilberg was making Jurassic Park a few years before the film was to release the studio started talking about these prehistoric animals books started coming out and when people were at the peak of their curiosity they released the film We really need to do the right kind of marketing because there is a huge interest in Indian cinema overseas right now At Cannes I went to an Italian restaurant and even before I could reach my table there were a group of people from Egypt wanting autographs Later in the same restaurant I found people from various parts of the world wanting to take autographs and wanting to know more about films in India Once I was in Jaipur and I saw a group of Chinese people approaching us and suddenly the girls in the group started touching my feet I was surprised but they know all about our culture Our films are making a huge impact globally This interest will only growu00a0