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Why Amitabh Bachchan is angry with the media
28th June 2007 09.01 IST
By ApunKaChoice

Bollywood mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan vented out his anger with the media in an interview published Wednesday.

Bachchan said that he is angry with the media for saying that his family visited several temples and performed rituals because of a flaw in the horoscope of his new daughter-in-law, the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai .

"I have not seen Aishwarya's horoscope. Neither has she. Two people have decided to get married ... she's a blessing to the family," Bachchan told newspaper.

Bachchan's son Abhishek Bachchan married Ash, in a glittering ceremony in April and the media reported that both families made religious offerings at temples in northern India considered auspicious among Hindus.

The reports also claimed that Ash is "manglik" or has Mars in her astrological chart, a condition many in the conservative country believe can be disastrous for marriage.

Some news reports suggested that Ash underwent a number of rituals before the marriage took place to end her "manglik" status.

Bachchan has always denied those reports.

"I ask you as a citizen, is it a crime to go to a temple?" Bachchan said in the interview.

“I have not seen Aishwarya’s horoscope. Neither has she. Two people have decided to get married. That’s all that matters...I think it all began with the electronic media suddenly airing…. no, it actually began earlier with the association, or the media's attention on the association between Abhishek and Aishwarya and the speculation of some kind of union. And what happened subsequently were perceptions, speculations that were astrological in nature. Then one day we saw some astrologer coming on television saying that this is her (Ash's) horoscope, it’s not right, so on and so forth,” Bachchan said.

“Then you had shots of my brother (Ajitabh) being interviewed saying that he didn't know anything about this. The accusation was that my brother took Aishwarya's horoscope and this is what the astrologer said. Even I haven't seen Aishwarya's horoscope till today. Neither has she. Two people have decided to get married. That's all that matters to me. My son called me from New York - he and Aishwarya had gone for the premiere of Guru . "I've proposed to her and she has said yes," he said. I said, "Come home". We still don't know what this manglik is,” Bachchan said.

“I’m just practising a very normal human practice of going to the temple. But the insinuation is that they [the Bachchans] are going to the temple to get the manglik removed. This is rubbish. Four instances, I'll tell you. The first one was when we went to Benares. It was the 27th of November, my father's birth anniversary. When my father passed away (in 2003), the Government of India issued a stamp in his honour the next year. The stamp was released by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Atalji and my father had been very close associates. He came to inaugurate the function and in his speech he said that he wanted every year on the 27th of November to be celebrated with a Kavi Sammelan in Lucknow. For the past year, my mother has been critically ill. She has been hospitalised with Alzheimer's and dementia. We have traditionally always celebrated Holi and Diwali as festivals opening our house to everyone. We did not celebrate last year because we felt that this celebration would be insensitive. When my father's birthday came up last year, we all felt that it would be improper to have the celebrations. Jaya was shooting in Benares… Laaga Chunari Mein Daag , I was in Bombay, Abhishek was shooting in Delhi. Aishwarya happened to have been passing through Delhi, they were seeing each other. Jaya said, "Look, it would be nice if all of us could come and pray in the Sankatmochan Temple in Benares. Its dad's birthday, the whole family will get together." That's all that it was. The whole thing just repeatedly came coming that they've gone there to get rid of the manglik curse.”

“Then they got engaged in the early part of January. 24th January was Amar Singhji's birthday. We went to Vidyanchal. It's a temple that he believes in. He wanted to marry off 50 underprivileged couples. He said that he spends a lot of money throwing parties in Delhi …rather give it to charity. It's a temple where his children had their mundan. So we all went there. That's all we did. Then the whole thing was put up 'Oh he's going to Siddhivinayak Temple to pray.' I've been there many times. Siddhivinayak every Tuesday has a very fine aarti and people walk on Monday night at midnight from all parts of the city. I've done that many times. But now it's being insinuated that I went there for the manglik thing.”

On the notion that he propagates superstition by repeatedly going to temples, Bachchan said, “I ask you as a citizen, is it a crime to go to the temple? And if I am propagating superstition by going to the temple, then the whole country is propagating superstition. And what about the TV channels and the media? Please stop those TV [religion and faith] channels immediately! What about the print media? Don't you print horoscopes? Some people quoted works of my father and said his father was a staunch agnostic, he never believed in all this, how come his son is propagating superstition. My father was nothing like that. He is not alive to defend himself. I think it's unethical for people to refer to him in this manner.”

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