The Khans give Spielberg's bash a miss

Having watched our directors respond to Steven Spielberg’s presence like schoolboys at a parents day meet the question that comes to mind is, why were none of the Khan superstars present at the all-vegetarian dinner that Anil and Tina Ambani hosted for their distinguished and thoroughly unassuming guest? Those close to Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir Khan maintain the Khan superstars were out of town. But surely they could’ve made it a point to fly in to Mumbai from wherever they were, so they could be part of this historic meeting between a leading light of the American film industry and the Bollywood film fraternity. After all Kamal Haasan and Nagarjuna flew in from Chennai and Hyderabad to meet the American Dreamer. A leading actress who attended the dinner for Spielberg at the Ambani residence said, “Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman were not there. No matter where they were they could have flown back for the occasion. Shah Rukh and Aamir were represented by their respective wives. But there was no one to represent Salman at all.” Salman in his typical way, was largely unimpressed by the august foreign presence in Bollywood’s midst. Says a leading filmmaker, “Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir are not in awe of the West. It isn’t as if they disrespect Hollywood’s achievements. But you won’t catch them playing glorified cameos in Hollywood films, like Anil Kapoor did in Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol or Anupam Kher has done in Silver Linings Playbook. The Khans are very clear on this issue. They don’t crave acceptance from the West.” In fact a filmmaker who couldn’t attend both the Spielberg events in Mumbai says, “It was embarrassing to see the film fraternity line up like schoolboys for questions and photographs with Spielberg. Madhur Bhandarkar was seen nearly tripping over to get to stand next to ‘God’(read: Spielberg) at the interactive session with directors.” Apparently Sudhir Mishra got so nervous while introducing Hindi cinema to Spielberg that he forgot the title of Raju Hirani’s blockbuster. It was Spielberg who bailed him out by gently suggesting to Sudhir that the film he meant was 3 Idiots. Adds the filmmaker, “In a television interview a leading editor of a daily told Spielberg he should come to India and make a historical on an Indian personality since Indian filmmakers don’t know how to do it properly. Such slavish devotion to glorifying a Hollywood icon is wrong. We have filmmakers who are every bit as outstanding as Spielberg. When we suggest that a Spielberg can do things for us that a Farhan Akhtar, Raju Hirani or Mira Nair can’t we are belittling our cinema and culture. I am glad Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman stayed away from Spielberg’s Indian visit. We must give American cinema due respect but not at the risk of making our industry look like a bunch of genuflecting clowns.”