Amitabh Bachchan conferred Asian FilmCulturalAward

Ask Bachchan, who has completed a glittering 40 years in the film industry, how he sees his mammoth run which has by far been the most enviable career span for any superstar in India and he says: "I have looked upon my career of 40 years in this wonderful industry as a great opportunity to be able to represent my creativity and my art -- if it can be called that -- but more importantly, to project our cinema to different parts of the world."

Bachchan, who still detests the word Bollywood, says if Hollywood can be the biggest foreign exchange earner for USA, he wants the Indian film industry to be one of the biggest forex earners for India.

"I have always been motivated by the fact if the USA can claim their cinema as the second largest export earner after aeroplanes, why can't India? We produce the largest number of films in the world. And I do believe we have the potential and talent to be able to proceed in a direction where we can achieve this," he says.

Bachchan also revealed through an anecdote how Hindi films have managed to charm the West.

"I have always wondered why it is that Indian cinema becomes so popular all over the world. Once during a visit to the erstwhile USSR, I was intrigued how Russians were so interested in our cinema. I happened to ask a young man who was coming out of a theatre after seeing a Hindi movie in Moscow what he thought about Indian films and he said, 'I like Indian cinema because when I come out after seeing a film I have a dry tear on my cheek and a smile on my face.' And this wonderfully sums up what Indian cinema is all about."

Bachchan also feels our movies are the biggest unifiers. "I have felt very strongly that in a country that is as diverse as India, perhaps the one unifying force that brings all these people together under one roof is Indian cinema. When we go and see a film, we never ask the person sitting next to us his religion. But we all laugh at the same jokes, we sing the same songs, we cry at the same emotions. Cinema is the greatest example of integration you can find in the country, or indeed, anywhere in the world."