Wonder why we are still called film industry: Amitabh

Mae Hong Son (Thailand), Dec 10 (IANS) In the digital age, megastar Amitabh Bachchan wonders why the movie world is still referred to as the "film industry".

"Digital camera... That wonder in today's times allows us this liberty... There is now no film... As in celluloid film, like in the past, and I often wonder why we are still called the film industry," Amitabh wrote on his blog.

"A chip runs endlessly inside the digital camera, specially designed and that is the norm... No wastage of celluloid film, a most expensive and rare ingredient in the films made in my times... All gone... Kodak has shut down... And that tension of expending excessive film for a production is now all the past and irrelevant," he added.

Amitabh recounted how the late legendary filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee used to ask actors to pay for film reels if they used to ask for retakes.

"As artistes in those times, worried whether the shot has come out right or not, we would ask and request for another 'take'... and the reprimand from the director, mostly Hrishida used to be 'You pay for it'. And we would resign ourselves to the instincts of the master the captain of the ship, the director," he said.

Amitabh is currently shooting for "Thugs of Hindostan" here alongside Aamir Khan and Katrina Kaif.