Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

Shweta was the only Bachchan who had stayed away from the limelight! However show-biz is in the Bachchans Genes and it was only a matter of time before Shweta Bachchan Nanda succumbed to it! Thankfully she has not joined Bollywood and is now anchoring the NDTV show Next Gen.

"I saw myself in the first episode on last Tuesday...I guess I was okay. There're hundreds of things that I could've done better. I'd say I barely passed muster on the first episode. I need to be critical of myself if I'm going to grow. Lots of room for improvement."

Shweta is a mercurial mademoiselle. "Like everything else in my life tv is not something I planned. It just happened. I got an offer from NDTV. I put it across to my father and mother. They were very encouraging, as long as I was comfortable with it.

"I think I'll enjoy this TV stint. My kids are older, and I've lots of free time to give to other activities. I've been a stay-at-home mom for ten years. I've given them all my time. So when this offer came to me I thought, why not?"

"The entire format revolves around me. While my schedules so far revolved around my kids I'm now doing a balancing act.

At the moment it does seem a little bit of a rush because I never had to take out so much time for anything but my home. It's just 12 episodes right now. Let's see how it goes. I certainly don't feel pushed to a corner. I'm quite easy and convenient."

In fact mom Jaya was not too thrilled with her decision!

"I'm her child, and this is a first for me. Her reactions were all emotional. But as I grow habituated to the medium I'm sure she'll be less tense about my new vocation. But she did advise me to just be my natural self on camera, no matter what others say."

On Bollywood:
"I don't have what it takes. I've neither the face nor the voice. And besides I didn't have the temperament for it.