Bachchan, editor in war of words over interview

In his latest blog, cine icon Amitabh Bachchan has criticised a prominent tabloid for not doing justice to an interview it took with him in the first week of his 67th birthday.

According to Bachchan, the Executive Editor of the Mumbai tabloid Mid-Day, Abhijit Majumder had sought an interview with the actor to mark his birthday, his 40 years in Bollywood, and the launch of Bigg Boss 3.

Bachchan, says he was initially willing to do an interview only by e-mail, but relented to give a face-to-face interview.

The interview was published and, Bachchan complains on his blog that "it did not do justice to the responses I had given".

What was surprising, says Bachchan, is that a video clip of the interview appeared on Mid-Day's website.

Writes he:

"I had never expected either the paper or any one else to have posted something which I would be unaware of. [And] now realise why Mr. Majumdar wanted a personal meeting. He had placed a small "sting" camera on the table in front of me, without informing me that the interview was being video taped as well. He never told me that they had a video net facility in operation and that the recorded interview would find a place there."

Bachchan accuses the editor of dishonesty and says the reason he had sought a one-on-one interview was with the "malafide intent of recording the interview to be used as a live input on a video electronic facility medium that your paper runs."

Majumder has hit back in the paper, printing a photograph of the actor sitting comfortably in front of the "sting" camera, and charging the actor of introducing a new word into journalism: a "sting of one's own legitimate interview".

Majumder says he had mentioned to Bachchan in the presence of the paper's photographer and two unknown gentlemen who also seemed to be videotaping it, that the interview would be recorded on audio and video; that he had asked the actor's secretary if he could bring along a photographer and somebody to video-record the interview.

'Either you are lying or I am. I would like to believe it is neither; it's just your memory playing tricks at twilight,' Majumder said.