t's been a jogger's delight, a hangout spot and a lover's point for
years. Now the picturesque Bandra Bandstand in entertainment capital
Mumbai will turn into the Bollywood Walk of Fame. Sure enough, the
street will be adorned with the hand imprints of popular living legends
like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan - a la Hollywood.
Housing the flats and bungalows of actors like Shah Rukh, Salman
Khan, John Abraham, Shabana Azmi and Rekha, the area attracts a lot of
tourists and local people.
With the addition of celebrity tiles at Bandstand Promenade - an
idea conceptualised by UTV Stars, the 'official channel of Bollywood' -
the number of visitors is only expected to increase.
Taking a leaf out of Los Angeles' Hollywood Walk of Fame at the
world-famous Hollywood Boulevard, officials at the channel were earlier
in talks for a Hall of Fame, but ultimately zeroed in on a 'Walk'.
"We have been working on this project for six months. Since we
consider ourselves the official Bollywood channel, we wanted to do
something for the actors who have contributed so much to the industry
over the years," Nikhil Gandhi, business head at UTV Stars, told IANS
over phone from Mumbai.
"So we zeroed in on this Bollywood Walk of Fame in Bandra
Bandstand, where the name and handprints of actors will be placed tile
by tile."
The Hollywood Walk of Fame stretches over two kilometres and has
brass stars and the names of showbiz stars engraved in tiles. A specific
area also has hand and foot imprints of actors, musicians and
technicians in clay tiles.
But the desi street will be 'different'.
"We wanted it to be different. We won't do stars, we will have
brass imprints for our stars, who will be required to give their hand
imprints in a clay cast, which will be processed in brass. And when it
is ready to be placed on the street, we shall invite the star over to
place it at the right place," said Gandhi.
The channel hopes to get as many as 60 tiles placed within the first year of its launch, scheduled for early January 2012.
With this, the Bandra Bandstand is expected to wear a new look!
"We had other options, but the Bandra Bandstand is a central location and looks wonderful with the sea by the side," he said.
"We haven't earmarked the stretch of the Walk of Fame yet, but we
wanted to choose a place which is convenient for the public, for
visitors, and a place which would add to the beautification of the city
as well as add tourism to the city, which is the hub of Bollywood."
Permission has been received from the Bombay Municipal
Corporation (BMC) and the Bandra Residents' Association (BRA) for the
project, according to Gandhi.
UTV Stars hopes to launch the project with a 'megastar' but are tightlipped about the name of the celebrity.
For starters, only actors mostly 'deserving, glamorous and big
stars who have contributed a lot to Indian cinema' will find their hand
imprints on the Bollywood Walk of Fame.
However, space will also be created for deceased legends who continue to live in the hearts of fans.
Gandhi is confident the Walk will add value to the 'city of dreams'.
