My Say

With Almighty blessings, my first dream has materialized with this “Golden Sojourn of Bollywood Wonderland” (Vol. I) in your hands.

The idea of compiling my actual published articles in a book form on Hindi films and the celebrities popularly called as Bollywood (although, I am also one of those few who opposed this word being similar to Hollywood) germinated sometime in the middle of 2009. One day when I opened my old cupboard I found it cluttered full of news paper clippings/ issues of my old published articles in heaps. When the idea was put before my family and friends to compile those in a book form, they supported the concept. This started a big search to find out the dates of actual published article clippings I have preserved concerning Bollywood. The earliest I could get was an article published in Dec. 1959. Thus that became the base period. Since I desired to take out a compiled book by March 2010, the period was selected published till 2009, notching a half century. Many thanks to my daughter Aarti, friends Shyam and Dipt to firm down the apt title for the book. But then the real test of my struggle was to pick and choose only the important and interesting pieces for compilation from amongst the thousands of article clippings. A gigantic task indeed ! Most of them were in very bad shape, torn, decayed paper, old hand composed fonts, and column wise unreadable text even for OCRs. Next priority was to find an International reputed publisher. My heartfelt thanks go to Ms. Lynne Hydley from Australia, who did a wonderful job as my literary agent who slogged, made out a few specimen pages in word and sent to reputed International publishers. Two of them expressed interest but then their pre-condition was to wait in Q spread to next three years. But since I wanted the book to come out by 2010, the association with Ms. Lynne could not fructify. Then realities taught me a lesson. It was a onerous task for myself as well as Book designers to convert in Running page format from column wise old newspaper format. Most of the articles were thus retyped. Next hurdle was to accommodate all the celebrity Interviews and important events within 400 pages. After a juggling rigmarole also, I had to squeeze in present 450 pages. Those celebrity Interviews which I have dropped from this was unintentional but dictated by the space constraint. Except the chapters two and three, all other chapter articles are just indicative in nature. I have, therefore, made this as volume I. Since this is already late by two years, I had no alternative but to adopt this approach.

God willing, I will cover the left over of Celebrity Interviews, Celeb parties, and fresh articles published after 2009 on all aspects covered in this book. The entire publication of the subjects of Television, Music, Analytical pieces, Juicy Gossip, Nostalgia and articles of general nature related to the Entertainment Industry; will get covered in Volume II. I beg of reader, as well as the celebrity indulgence, to excuse me for this inability and wait for the next book.

And my search for a good print-publisher cum promoter still continues.

I must express my immense gratitude to the living legend of “New Wave/ Parallel Cinema” Basu Chatterjee, who was magnanimous enough to have agreed to bless me by writing foreword. In this industry, people may know you for years but the appreciation and time is hard to get. Long live Basu Da and his type of films.

I also extend thanks to Ms. Shobha Mathur for having helped in initial proof reading of some files and Mr. Murtaza Kapaasi, who redesigned the book in the present format. Not to forget the big contribution of my baby grand daughter Nupoor (11 yr. wonder- recipient of U S President Obama’s Certificate for her excellence in academics) in creatively designing the front cover of this book. My son Gunjan helped me in getting this E published and other required jobs. Also thanks to friends and well wishers for their encouragement and co-operation.

Lastly, happy reading.

Mohan Siroya