Amitabh Bachchan has taken to his blog again to settle the score against a tabloid for what he sees as dubious journalism. The Bollywood icon has slated the paper for not doing justice to an interview it conducted with him shortly after his recent 67th birthday. According to the actor, the Executive Editor of the Bombay tabloid Mid-Day, Abhijit Majumder had requested an interview with the actor to mark his birthday, his 40 years in Bollywood, and the launch of reality TV show, Bigg Boss 3.
Bachchan, says he initially agreed to do an interview via email yet was persuaded to give a face-to-face interview. The interview was published and according to Bachchan “it did not do justice to the responses I had given”.
What further angered the actor was that a video clip of the interview appeared on the tabloid’s website, he wrote:
“I had never expected either the paper or any one else to have posted something which I would be unaware of. [And] now realize why Mr. Majumder 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 believes the editor was dishonest and believes that 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.”
Mid day is not taking this lying down, Majumder has retaliated by printing a photograph of the actor looking relaxed whilst seated in front of the “sting” camera. The editor also accuses the actor of introducing a new concept into journalism: a “sting of one’s own legitimate interview“.
Majumder firmly states that he, in the presence of the paper’s photographer and two others, had told Bachchan that the interview would be recorded on audio and video and 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.
Majumder tweeted "He is entitled to his rants, but he can't casually defame people on his blog, rubbish somebody's hard-earned credibility"
Who do you think is ‘mis-remembering’ the situation?
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