From Harivansh Rai to Aishwarya Rai

Ausaja with the first print poster of Namak Haraam thatrsquos part of his private collection PicsSneha KharabeThe first thing you notice as you step inside film historian SMM Ausajarsquos home is a wall covered from one end to another with framed pictures of Hindi film posters dating back to the early 70s Then you spot stacks of lobby card placards original first prints of some of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchanrsquos least known works from the same period This is clearly a collectorrsquos den ldquoWelcome to my obsessionrdquo Ausaja says greeting us with a smile For over 30 years he has been collecting film memorabilia a treasure trove he excavated through to put together his upcoming book The Bachchans which is slated to release at the end of this yearHarivansh Rai BachchanldquoItrsquos not a biographyrdquo the author clarifies right away ldquoItrsquos a coffeetable book which is a career chronicle the first of its kind that covers the five most famous of the Bachchan family mdash Dr Harivansh Rai Amitabh Jaya and Abhishek and Aishwarya Itrsquos a collection of stories told both in pictures and words that revolve around their work filmi and nonfilmi There are firstprint posters photographs LPEP covers song booklets and several nuggets that you have never seen or heard of beforerdquo Ausaja saysA song booklet of the film Sholay 1975The Bachchans never got directly involved in the making of the book although Ausaja did share the idea with Amitabh ldquoHe is aware and they have no issues obviously because I am not peeping into anyonersquos bedroom This is strictly about their work hardly ground for conspiracyrdquo Ausaja says He has known Amitabh since the time he was working on his last book Bollywood in Posters ldquoHe is a man of very few words And if he says something you better listen even though he poses it as a suggestionrdquo recalling his meeting with the man in Pratiksha when the actor had asked to see the dummy Turned out he was impressed enough to pen the foreword and has told Ausaja that he is looking forward to the new oneA show card of Jaya Bachchanrsquos Doosri Sita 1974Given Big Brsquos volume of work he quite effortlessly ends up occupying a large chunk of the book But the question remains mdash what can one say about the Bachchans especially Amitabh and still manage to break new ground ldquoI am the only author that didnrsquot need him to write this book This book does not chronicle his perspective through an interview It stems from my own research over decades as a film historianrdquo Ausaja says as he delicately rolls out a very brittle but stunning firstprint poster of Hrishikesh Mukherjeersquos Namak Haraam As we take in the handpainted artwork the film historian rattles off release dates and trivia as he continues to tell us about the book ldquoIt was not Mr Bachchan who told me that his first film Saat Hindustani did not even find a release in Mumbai even though it is counted as his debut His first film that released here was Anandrdquo And to get to this fact he poured through reams of trade magazines that released between 196970Amitabh and Jaya Bachchanrsquos weddingThe book takes off from Harivansh Rai Bachchanrsquos life and talks about his close proximity with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and how the latter pushed for the poet to be recognised Among the many nuggets Ausaja has shared is one about how Harivansh Rairsquos debut as a lyricist was not in Amitabhrsquos Alaap 1977 as is commonly believed It happened in a film titled Badnam Basti 1971 where he even recorded a song in his own voice ldquoThe song was called Mele Mein Koi Gujariya I have a picture from that recording that I have included in the bookrdquo Ausaja says adding ldquoThe only way to understand Amitabhrsquos life is to understand his fatherrsquosrdquoFor every film included in the book Ausaja has inserted review excerpts ldquoI have collected them from the monthly trade magazines of that era What did the critics say when Sholay or Zanjeer released None of that is available on the internet Baburao Patel called Sholay lsquodisgraceful and antinationalrsquordquoAusajarsquos collection of posters and memorabilia may be accidental stumbles but there is a method to the madness ldquoThere are multiple ways of acquiring memorabilia An obvious way is to approach producers but most of them donrsquot have anything And if they do they wonrsquot easily part with it So then you barter Exchange one rare poster for another In my case producers have come to me asking for posters of their own filmsrdquo he says adding that he has gifted posters of films like Natwarlal and Yarana to its maker Rakesh Kumar who didnrsquot have them He also approaches distributors most of whose offices are shut now ldquoThey could have a treasure in their godowns but most of them have found their way to chor bazaar through raddiwalas But even there chances of finding an original first print is negligiblerdquo The cream of his collection is courtesy Feroze Rangoonwalla ldquoHe was the most admired collector of his time he passed away recently In the last 12 years I met him almost every month and a large chunk of my salary would go to him but it was totally worth itrdquoIt has taken Ausaja eight years to put together this book thatrsquos a commissioned project by Om Books International ldquoThis book is the fruit of my painless research and I want to it to be reference material for the Bachchans for the future generationrdquo he says