Big B overwhelmed at 'Cheeni Kum's' London premiere

Iconic Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan says he had a wonderful experience at the London premiere of ad guru R. Balkrishnan's directorial debut "Cheeni Kum".

"It was overwhelming. In fact, I had never been to a premiere of any of my films in London. Leicester Square was unbelievable. I was so moved by the response I got," he said.

"Cheeni Kum" was screened at Leicester Square in London May 22.

"I was reminded of the way people used to respond at my premieres in Mumbai in the 1970s and 80s. Every time I came on screen they clapped. Every slow motion shot was greeted with cheers," Amitabh added.

The superstar in fact got delayed for the premiere of "Cheeni Kum" in Mumbai because of the Leicester Square screening.

The film was also screened at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival and Amitabh's presence was greeted by hordes of people who surrounded him.

He could only see half of "Cheeni Kum" at Cannes.

"It was a short and packed visit. I just went for media interviews. I was there not as an official delegate invited to Cannes. The distributor, Kishore Lulla, wanted me there to support 'Cheeni Kum'," he said.

"Cannes is a very busy place at this time of the year. Lots of film personalities, lots of films being sold and bought. My son's forthcoming film 'Drona' was also being projected. So I had inaugurated Abhishek's poster there."

After visiting Cannes, the Big B feels Indian cinema has come a long way.

"Some of the media in Cannes that I met felt otherwise. But you've to understand Hindi isn't a universally accepted language. English is. Cinema in Hollywood has cultural and linguistic advantages through marketing. People abroad don't understand our culture or language," he said.

"But we still beat Hollywood in numbers. Go to Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, Mauritius, the West Indies and see which gets more eyeballs, our films or theirs. It would be very tough to keep our cinema out of the West just because we've a demographic edge.

"In fact, Hollywood is now trying to penetrate our market by dubbing their films into Indian languages. Why would they do that if they weren't interested in us?"