There has been an incident at the shooting of ‘Ravana’ in the forests of Kerala. Abhishek and Aishwarya were to do an action sequence with an elephant. Aishwarya was to be on it and minutes before the shot was to be taken the elephant went beserk. Gored his ‘mahout’ with his tusk, wrapped him around in his trunk and smashed him on the ground and then trampled on him. He then went mad around the sets sending everyone, unit member cast and crew running for cover into the forest.

After a couple of hours when they all emerged they discovered the elephant blocking the road to the Hotel. The unit and all concerned then drove away from the scene to a remote forest bungalow where there was no contact. After a few hours with the help of the police and forest guards and a vet, the elephant was subdued by firing nuetralizing injections into him. It took several hours before the area was declared safe to travel and Abhishek and Aishwarya were able to reach their Hotel by about 3 AM. Frightening !!

Abhishek and Aishwarya are now safe and out of harms way. The unit has decided to cancel further shooting and have shifted to OOTY - the picturesque hill resort in Tamilnadu.

It has been another anxious day. Sitting away from home, distanced from loved ones, it is torturous to hear such incidents and be unable to do anything.

Leela Naidu that lovely and beautiful actress of limited films in the 60’s, married into the Oberoi family and later to that writer poet Dom Moraes, passed away a day before Gayatri Devi. She had worked in some very meaningful cinema of the black and white era. In particular one remembers her in a film with Sunil Dutt saheb made on a real life incident that took place in Bombay about the Nanavati trial, where a senior naval officer had been involved in killing his wife’s paramour. ‘Anuradha’ was another film, delicate and middle path in which she had worked.

The first promo of ‘Aladin’ as promised has been put up. I do hope that you are able to access it and if you do, let me know what you think of it.

There has been surprise and concern on the quality of my content yesterday. It has been looked upon as disturbing to some and too abstract to others. This has reference to the last three paragraphs. I admit that they have aptly expressed what the state of my mind was at the moment. I will not deny the presence of a dark phase at that given hour. But I write with heart and honesty. I write what I sense is within me. It is not essential that all that is within me shall be all that I write and I do not concern myself with that. But I cannot be challenged on the purity of expression and intent. It shall perhaps never be possible for all to judge or assuage the purpose of those words and as to why they were used. It is at times difficult for me as well to say why. But it is there in a public cyber world and I never shame myself from putting it out.

Strife and struggle have become an integral part of human existence. There will be moments when life shall be disappointing and without reason. But, Shweta my daughter sent in a wonderful quote on PING and the BlackBerry ~

‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade !!’

So I squeeze out the juice from the citrus, mix it with the bubbly soda of life, sprinkle in some sweetness and devour it, quenching my thirst of wellness.

We must not accept to be put down. We must show strength against the oppressor and battle indignities to save the dignity of our loved ones.

In closing, a prayer for Jasmine of London for her Mother who battles a severe health condition. May she recover rapidly, with all the wishes from FmXt..

Love,

Amitabh Bachchan