August 16, 2008
Amitabh Bachchan To Lighten Up 100 Dark Villages
Some part of the proceeds of the Amitabh Bachchan-led ‘Unforgettable Tour’ will go to lighting up 100 villages in India as part of a charity initiative of The Energy Research Institute (TERI). “The tour proceeds will go to lighting up 100 villages with solar lanterns. After every show, there is an awareness message given by Jaya Bachchan,” Sabbas Joseph, director of Wizcraft, the organiser of the show said.
Describing as phenomenal, response the tour has evoked so far, Sabbas said the prominence of India, Bollywood and the Bachchans are evident from the positive feedback received all along. “Sabbas said the logistics of the tour is enormous involving 28 tonnes of equipment travelling from city to city and country to country. There are more than 1,000 costumes for 70 songs and 35 dancers. In all, there are 130 people travelling. We are a family on the road,” he said.
Besides, organising a tour overseas involves taxation, visas, handling more than 200 baggages, he said. The 45-day tour which began on July 18 will cover six countries and perform 13 shows. Each show costs around USD one million.
Sabbas said each show has been handled by different promoters and many venues are breakthrough ones as no Indianshow has been organised at those places before this tour. Talking about the technical team, he said it involves experts from India and United States and quality of the production is at par with that of Michael Jackson shows. Source