Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

Actor turned producer Anil Kapoor has also jumped onto the Blog bandwagon in an effort to promote his film Gandhi My Father, which honestly looks stunning. Here are some excerpts from his entry.

"With fame, you know, you can read about yourself, somebody else's ideas about you, but what's important is how you feel about yourself."

I found the late Marilyn Monroe's quote quite appropriate to begin my first Blog posting.

Many people have asked me, and lots still do on why I wanted to turn producer. Why do I want to risk so much when I have secured a name for myself in the industry as an actor? The term 'taboo' is always inducted in a producer's mind whenever he starts a new venture. So why did I want to produce this film? Why did I want to do something in which many have tried but failed?

For me the only failure in life is the failure to try.I am a workaholic and in my many years in this industry I have never thought of money. I was never insecure when a young gun would come up.I kept on working- sometimes for friends, sometimes for family and sometimes for reasons unknown. But whenever I was involved with a film, I always helped out a producer in every department wherever I could lend a helping hand. I recall when Shekhar Kapoor walked out of Joshilay, I could have protested or also walked out. However, I stood by the producer and when Joshilay failed; I took it up as my failure.

But there were films which I did for the money. I needed the money for certain reasons best known to me. I did believe in these films but I was not certain. Sometimes even my name was used (with my consent of course). For instance I was credited as producer of Badhai Ho Badhai and even My Wife's Murder even though I didn't do anything but act in these films.

I never valued my name and my convictions. I always gave it away cheaply. I realized that people would think that this is my thinking and my conviction. But I don't blame anyone for that but myself.Then Feroz Abbas Khan came to me with the script of Gandhi My Father. After he narrated the screenplay to me, I knew that this would be the film which I would produce independently only for myself- to prove to myself.

And now today that the film is completed I'm speaking on why I made it.I did it more to prove it to myself than to prove it to others that I can do it.Let the world decide whether what I have done is right or wrong