It was love at first sight for former UN diplomat Bhaichand Patel, who was introduced to the magical world of Hindi cinema at a very young age. The charm of films was so enthralling that even while he was growing up in far off Fiji Islands, he instantly fell in love with the actors of black-and-white Bollywood movies. Now, he has dedicated a book to his favourite artistes.
After writing books on elderly singletons, liberating cocktails, Bhaichand is now ready to launch his third book Bollywood’s Top 20, which is a compilation of 20 life stories of popular movie stars right from the bygone era till present times.
Asked what was the reason for choosing this extensive topic for his third book, he promptly replies, “I am a versatile man and I have loads of interests. When I decided to write a book on popular cinema stars, I wanted to keep the number limited. I made a list of artistes and after much brainstorming I finalised the top 20 artistes. I move in a circle where there are many people who are crazy about cinema, and when I asked them to write on these artistes, they were more than happy to contribute.”
“While finalising the book details, there were long discussions and debates on who should be featured and why. The first 10 names were easy but the last 10 artistes were not. We wanted to feature both Vyjayanthimala and Waheeda Rehman, but finally settled on Waheeda because of her commercial success. Everybody was enthusiastic about the book and in no time we got twenty writers to write about each artiste,” he adds.
Kajol will launch the book in the capital on Monday, and speaking about the response so far, an excited Bhaichand reveals, “When Shammi Kapoor’s widow got to know about this book, she requested me for a copy. I have been told that more than the book it’s the CD of 50 evergreen Bollywood tracks that comes with this book that is becoming a hit among cinema lovers.”