THEY ARE STILL EXPECTING YOU TO WORK GREATER WONDERS ,

Dear Mr. Bachchan,
It has been such a pleasure and a privilege to watch you grow as one of the greatest actors of our time. I have had the extra privilege of watching you grow from the time you started your career with my guru, K.A.Abbas'

"Saat Hindustani " and then see you struggle your way facing one flop after another till you kicked that chair in a police station and zoomed to stardom and have not stopped growing bigger and better with time, your great friend.

Every time your critics and detractors loved to believe that it was all but over or over for you, you struck back with double the energy, enthusiasm and fire.

Not many, even your most ardent admirers and fans expected you to play a grand second inning as a mature and older actor, but you have been suprising all of them with one better mature performance after another.

It was heartening to see you as the octogenarian Mirza in"Gulaabo Sitaabo " and winning laurels and rave reviews for your performance which must be nothing new for you. But, I hope you know (and knowing you as I know you I know you will know)that your admirers are expecting you to come up with much better performances in the roles you will be playing in your upcoming films like "Brahmastra", "Chehre ","Jhund "and "AB CD".They are also expecting to see you in a new avataar in the next season of "KBC"....

And I have a special reason to write this open letter to you. There are some of my more enlightened friends who are also your admirers who want to see you in roles that no other actor of your age must have played.

I want to mention Mr.Zain Hussain from Dubai who has been your die-hard fan ever since he first met you and you were kind to spend an hour with him while you were shooting for "Bade Miyaan Chhote Miyaan "in Hyderabad. Zain has been following every move that you make in your career and even in your public life. He has just seen "Gulaabo Sitaabo " and is as always all praise for you, but believes that the film could have been much better .He strongly feels that your character as Mirza should have had a far better scope to give you the space to grow.

He has been telling me how he would like to see you play an old Nawab or a poet of another era and another time. He goes on to say that you have been very good at reciting Urdu poetry in films like "Sharaabi "and other films and still remembers every poetic dialogue you have spoken in your films. It is not an everyday request because it comes from a man who knows what cinema is, what poetry is and what life is.

I have only tried to be a communicator, I know you will do only what is right for you at this stage. But, what can I do when so many people who think I am close to you tell me what they would like to tell you.I will continue to be a witness to the rise and rise of the star of the millennium, who I had once seen as a poet in your first film in which Abbas Sahab had paid you five thousand rupees for the entire film and had made arrangements for you to live with the other members of the unit in a dormitory in Goa.

Hoping to have many more rich experiences and memories about you ,Mr.Bachchan who have always been a very warm and caring friend.

A chela of the same guru, K.A.Abbas

Ali Peter John