CANCELLED

Big B is a no-show at Melb!!
 
The much-hyped visit of Amitabh Bachchan to close the ongoing Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, is off. A communiqué from the festival organisers said the iconic star called off his tour to be with a close family member who is severely ill, supposedly on her death-bed.
“We are all obviously very disappointed,” Mitu Bhowmick Lange, Festival Director revealed. “The festival has been soaring with year with all the various events, screenings and 100 years celebrations, and having Mr Bachchan close it would have been the perfect finish”.
However, apparently Mr Bachchan’s office has committed to his attendance next year. News from the festival is that they have now secured Bombay Talkies as the closing night film on 22nd May. The film is an ode to 100 years of Indian cinema and is a compilation of four short films directed by four leading film makers Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Dibakar Banerjeee.
The film is premiering at Cannes on 19 May and then screens at Melbourne, so it is quite a coup for the festival. The film has won critical appraisal as well as box office success. Stars Vidya Balan, Simi Garewal, Prabhu Deva and Jimmy Shergill, and director Kabir Khan have already wowed the crowds at the festival, and fans were eagerly awaiting Amitabh’s visit.
They will have to be content with seeing him on the big screen at the end of the month, in a rather different avatar – in Baz Luhrmann’s magnum opus The Great Gatsby.