May 22, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The launch of SMM Ausaja’s ‘Bollywood in Posters‘, the first of its kind collection of posters of Bollywood movies compiled into a book, took place amidst swarming media attention with the legendary superstar Amitabh Bachchan himself unveiling the book.
While speaking on the launch of the book, which is a unique compilation of around 200 posters of Hindi films in the span of last 80 years collected by film historian SMM Ausaja, the luminary actor said,
“I’m delighted to be here at the release of the book, which I feel is an important document and element for posterity. And I’m grateful that someone has taken interest in preserving the history of Hindi Cinema. I have been with Ausaja since he was a journalist and I’m happy to be here and be a part of the occasion.”
See the photos of the Book Launch
However, the megastar also mentioned a slight objection at the use of the word ‘Bollywood’ instead of Hindi Cinema in the title by saying, “The only thing I don’t like bout the book is the title but that’s a different story altogether.”
Speaking on the occasion, Ausaja said,
“I’m happy and delighted to see my romance with Hindi Cinema unveiled so beautifully. I have worked very hard on this collection which has in all 5000 posters but since it was not possible to get them all in a book we decided to keep the number at 200.”
Expressing his gratitude to the iconic actor he said,
“I’m so humbled at the extent of support Mr. Bachchan has given to me. I began by collecting posters of Amitabh Bachchan’s films over 20 years ago, starting with his film Kaalia. And now to have Mr. Bachchan himself launch my book is a great honor.”
Ausaja gifted Amitabh Bachchan a very rare two sheeter poster from the latter’s film, Deewar, as a token of his gratitude.
The book contains a unique collection of posters of Hindi films in the past 80 years along with their credits, popular songs and interesting anecdotes, with the oldest film poster in it being that of Alam Ara, India’s first talkie film dating back to 1931 and has been published by Om Books International, the publishing house which has previously launched books like Shah Rukh Khan by Mushtaq Sheikh and The name is Rajnikanth by Gayathri Sreekanth.
See the photos of the Book Launch
Also present at the occasion was eminent photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha. Rahul Mahajan, who was there too, with his wife Dimpy, made it a point to pose for as many cameras as he could on the occasion.
— Rahat Khan / Sampurn Wire
