PA/41/11 20 October 2011
Australia recognises Amitabh Bachchan for his contribution to global cinema
Australia's High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, today congratulated Bollywood superstar, Amitabh Bachchan, on his honorary Australian doctorate, awarded by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
Mr Varghese said "I congratulate Mr Bachchan on his honorary doctorate from QUT, an important academic institution in my home city of Brisbane. Mr Bachchan has made an inestimable contribution to global cinema and this prestigious award is a marker of the impact of his films in Australia.”
The Queensland University of Technology conferred the award during a ceremony at Old Government House in Brisbane today (20 October).
Mr Varghese said "When I met Mr Bachchan in Mumbai recently he spoke positively about his upcoming role in Baz Luhrmann's latest feature film, The Great Gatsby.” During his visit to Australia, Mr Bachchan will film sequences at Fox Studios in Sydney, alongside Leonardo Di Caprio, Tobey Maguire and Australia’s Joel Edgerton.
Bollywood’s popularity in Australia is growing, moving from niche to mainstream. Mr Varghese said "when Aamir Khan launched his film 'Peepli Live' to a packed audience at the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival, it was clear Bollywood had captured Australia's imagination."
Mr Varghese said "the rise of Bollywood in Australia reflects the phenomenal growth that is taking place across the spectrum of the Australia-India relationship, from booming trade and investment to education links and two-way tourism. Quite simply, our countries are becoming more important to, and interested in, each other. And cultural ties are a critical element of the convergence. That is why we're staging a major festival in India next year, which will showcase contemporary Australian arts and culture.”
Mr Varghese added “I want to thank Mr Bachchan for his enormous contribution to global cinema. In accepting this award he will encourage the important cultural conversation between India and Australia.”
QUT release enclosed (including quotes from Mr Bachchan)
High Commission Media contact: 91-11-4139 9900 (Ext 378/251)
Press Release – Queensland University of Technology
20 October 2011
Bollywood legend to receive QUT's top honour
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) will recognise the legendary career of India's biggest film star, Amitabh Bachchan, who tomorrow will be awarded the title of Doctor of the University.
QUT's highest honorary award will be conferred on Mr Bachchan at Old Government House at the Gardens Point campus, Brisbane for his outstanding contribution to creative industries over several decades.
Mr Bachchan is one of the most prominent and influential figures in the history of Indian cinema and is coming to QUT fresh from the set of Baz Luhrman's latest production, The Great Gatsby, which is being shot in Sydney. The prolific Bollywood actor will be playing shady businessman Meyer Wolfsheim alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's classic tale of the jazz age.
Mr Bachchan, who first gained popularity in the early 1970s, has won numerous awards including three National Film Awards and 12 Filmfare Awards, and has also received a number of India's highest civilian honours. As well as founding his own company, he has worked as a playback singer, film producer and television presenter and was an elected member of the Indian Parliament from 1984 to 1987.
QUT Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Coaldrake, said Mr Bachchan was the most significant Indian film industry name to come to Australia so the potential for a mutually beneficial relationship between the Australian and Indian creative industries was enormous.
"Mr Bachchan is only the second person from India - after IT leader, Narayana Murthy - to receive such an honour from QUT," Professor Coaldrake said. "He embodies the theme of creative industries - a combination of performing arts and business models, which QUT has so successfully promoted.
"This will be a significant link between our Creative Industries Faculty - the first such faculty in Australia and a national leader in research, teaching and professional practice in this sector - and the Indian entertainment industry."
Many significant international honours have been conferred on Mr Bachchan. These include the Star of the Century award at the Alexandria International Film Festival in 2001, Cultural Ambassador of South Africa by President Thabo Mbeki in 2003, and the Officier de la Legion d'Honneur by the French Government.
Mr Bachchan said he was honoured to be recognised by QUT. "I am truly overwhelmed and immensely pleased to be the recipient of such a distinction," Mr Bachchan said. "The recognition of my contribution to Indian cinema and its effort to reach out to an international community fills me with intense pride and humility - pride for being able to be a link between Australian and Indian professionals of the film and creative industries and humility for a chance to be the medium in doing so. May this help strengthen the existing bonds between our two countries."
Mr Bachchan was on the verge of accepting the doctorate in 2009, but later declined as he felt the timing was "inappropriate" following attacks on Indian students in Victoria.
On Friday (Oct 21) Mr Bachchan will launch an international travel bursary at QUT in the name of his late father Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan, a leading Indian poet of the 20th century and the second Indian to receive a doctorate in English literature from Cambridge University.
Executive Dean of the Creative Industries Faculty Professor Rod Wissler said the bursary would allow QUT students to visit Indian institutions in the creative entertainment and cultural sectors for study or research. "It is intended that recipients of this annual bursary will aspire to similar achievements, fundamental to deeper cultural understanding and international cooperation," Professor Wissler said. "Some of the relevant disciplines from which recipients may be drawn include creative writing, performing arts, film
and television production and fashion design.”
For further information contact :
Janne Rayner, QUT associate director media and communication,
+61 (0) 7 3138 3026, +61 (0)407 585 901 or [email protected]
Alita Pashley, QUT media officer, +61 (0) 7 3138 1841 or [email protected]