Here's another thought about Amitabh Bachchan the person (not to be confused with AB the actor or AB the star).

I believe he does suffer from an inherent insecurity complex....mind you though, he is an extremely shrewd businessman. He said he always wanted to act in a Hollywood kind of setup when he signed up for KAANTE. What he did was work with technicians from Hollywood but predominantly within an Indian milieu. Could you play safer than that?

He does belong to that generation of Indians that was a bit apologetic in general when pitched against global competition. I see that in my parents' generation, heck even with my cousins who migrated to North America about 25 years ago. So all this crap about doing work on my terms is really a whole load of BS, because he is a rather talented actor, who could have held his own. And if he were really serious about doing pathbreaking work within the confines of Indian cinema he could have done it long, long ago, when he was at the peak of his creativity - when he was doing films like Trishul, DON, Amar-Akbar-Anthony etc. In those times he chose to work ONLY with people like Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra, which is such a pity too. Ofcourse he did an odd Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie (and we have the results to see truly). Even in the late eighties he confined himself to working with a Mukul Anand at the most. Its amazing that he has till date not worked with any of the really great directors of his time, never with Shyam Benegal nor with Govind Nihalani(thankfully he is at last with DEV). And he is yet to work with Vidhu Vinod Chopra or with Ram Gopal Verma (as per latest reports, his EK is indefinitely postponed) or even with Shekar Kapur!

I saw ER the other day and lo-and-behold Nagra performed her 'inter-racial' kiss. Her parents are gonna be played by Anupam Kher and his wife (Kiron Kher) and of couse they are not gonna approve of her black boyfriend. I think they're in for a proper whipping by the script writers. I wouldn't be surprised if Nagra is gonna by typecast playing the 'girl who always falls for non-indians' thoroughout her career. It'll probably be a long time before you see on-screen, an Indian couple (in a western country) in an 'approved' relationship.

enjoy, I agree with you that they have really created a bad impression of Indians, but I don't think they care, all they want is the $$$. They would hop on one leg while pulling funny faces if you offered them money.

I Think AB is not made for Hollywood or the western film industry, he is a Mr Bollywood and what he has done so far are films which reflect his style of acting. I do not think he can act in a more westernised way.

Putting that on one side I am sure the new generation with east/west corss fertalisation we will see Asian actors hitting the main stream western films.

Look at this site http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressr ... keys.shtml

It is a TV drama with Asian actors and I have seen it a few times, its not typical Indian babu role and from what I have seen these Actors can give a run for the money to any white actors.

The west needs to come out from there nest and give a real break to some talented Asian actors.

Also Bombay Dreams has many good Asian Actors and when I saw it UK it is as good as any other musicals in London.

So AB I think you should be more positive and encourage the young talent to take on the west and not behave like a second class citizen, I know as a British Asian I am second to none.