>On 15/04/2005 4:19 PM, Chris Doss wrote:
>
>
>>According to this Russian article, Blacchan is the
>>head of the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionair?
>>
>>
>>
>
>the article at the link i posted above (wnbc) says the same. but of
>course that is not his claim to fame.
>
> --ravi
>
>
The Millionaire show represents the Second Coming of Bachchan - his
spectacular career had gone into a bit of a decline a few years prior to
the show. He is now firmly back in the saddle as Bollywood's all-time
great deity. As to your question about Russian pop culture in India -
the former Soviet Union's love for Indian movies is, unfortunately, a
strictly one-way phenomenon. Raj Kapoor is the only Indian film maker
who acknowledged this one-sided Russian love affair - his
autobiographical film "Mera Naam Joker" shows him falling in love with a
pretty Russian circus artist who doesn't reciprocate his feelings. Other
than that it's a big blank.
This incident from the early eighties may be relevant here - I was living in Germany then. A young Bulgarian woman buttonholed me at a party and insisted I hear her sing a very popular song from a Raj Kapoor film. She had a beautiful voice and, except for entirely understable lapses in pronunciation, rendered it quite well. Unfortunately, I could not return the compliment with a Bulgarian - or even a Russian - song. Having said which, I must add that I knew more about Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and Turgenev than she did about Ghalib, Mir and Zauq (roughly the same period)!
Sujeet -- As failures go, attempting to recall the past is like trying to grasp the meaning of existence. Both make one feel like a baby clutching at a basketball: one's palms keep sliding off.
-- Joseph Brodsky * TagZilla 0.057 * http://tagzilla.mozdev.org