The Indian film star Abhishek Bachchan is up for his first world tour, saying he is looking forward to interacting with live audiences as this is more electric than just acting.’The difference between acting in films and stage shows is that you interact with live audiences and the experience is more electric. You get immediate reactions,’ Abhishek.

Titled ‘The Unforgettable’, the tour kicks off from Toronto July 18 and will have Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Riteish Deshmukh and Preity Zinta as its permanent members.

Big B is just back from The Unforgettable Tour and has immediately donned his actor uniform to promote his recent release The Last Lear. Sreya Basu caught up with Amitabh Bachchan during the premiere of his film in Kolkata…

You are just back from The Unforgettable Tour. How has the experience been?

Oh! It’s lovely…I still cannot believe that people all over the world love Bollywood and me so much.

Are you satisfied with your performance during the Tour?

More or less, yes. The young folks like Abhishek (Bachchan), Aishwarya (Rai Bachchan) and Ritesh (Deshmukh) forced me to take the stage everywhere. But trust me, dancing is not something I look forward to. It’s a pain for a 66-year-old man to shake his waist and dance. Besides, I don’t know why but I’m frightened of dancing since 1969…and the fear still continues.

For all those of you who have been curious about what’s been transpiring through the Bachchan’s Unforgettable Tour, you are in for a special treat.

Starting August 7, NDTV Imagine will screen special footage of the tour from behind the scenes . The episodes will track our superstars through 11 international cities beginning with India of course.

The opening capsules will bring together all the preparations by the big stars staring from Aishwarya falling ill at the rehearsals and costume trials with the designers. Watch how Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Ritesh Deshmukh sweat it out and perfect their dance moves with Shaimak’s troupe just before they leave for the biggest world tour. Catch the excitement of the musical duo Vishal & Shekhar as Big B raps to his favourite number Rang Barse during the rehearsals to surprise his global fans. Tune in to watch how the Bachchan family has a truly ‘Unforgettable’ experience as their 18 bags get misplaced by British Airways once they reach Toronto.

The Bachchans’ Unforgettable Tour has had a good response in some of the cities that it has gone to, but at the same time the high price of tickets have caused a problem at other venues.

The not-so-good-news for Bachchan fans is that stage shows have been cancelled in two European cities – Rotterdam in Holland and Oberhausen in Germany. Earlier, the show had also been cancelled in Vancouver, Canada.

Wiz Sabbas Joseph, Wizcraft director, writes on his blog: “This decision comes after every possible attempt was made by us to try and find a solution. The local promoters defaulted making it impossible to progress forward. We are truly saddened for those fans who purchased tickets in Rotterdam and Oberhausen in anticipation of experiencing this extravaganza. We are certain that we will be touring the European region and we will come back to embrace more cities soon.”

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan says he was overwhelmed by the “unprecedented” response of the crowds in London when he performed there with son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai.

History was made at the 02 Arena in London on Sunday when the Bachchans performed along with stars like Shilpa Shetty, Preity Zinta and Riteish Deshmukh as part of their ‘Unforgettable’ world tour – the 20,000-strong audience was on their feet most of the time!

“What you’ve heard is absolutely right. This is unprecedented and overwhelming. I’ve never gone through this experience before. Throughout my performance at the 02 Arena, the audience didn’t sit at all. All 20,000 of them stood on their feet while I performed,” Amitabh told IANS on phone from London.

“It was a deeply moving and humbling experience. I’ve never been in a performance like this ever. And perhaps the audience too had never felt like this before. The entire venue was sold out. We all got standing ovations. The audience just freaked out,” he added.

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan can’t take his decisions on his own, or so he says in his latest blog entry.

“My decisions on films that I have done, am doing and perhaps shall do in future, have always been led by factors that have been guided by what others feel about it rather than what I assess. I am terrible at that. Deciding what to do is a malaise with me,” Amitabh posted on his blog www.bigb.bigadda.com.

The veteran actor, who is currently in Los Angeles for his ongoing world concert “Unforgettable”, says if has to take decisions alone, he would probably not be anywhere.

“I love and prefer being guided than to lead,” he stated and added: “I would still tolerate a bad decision for me than the rigours of self-judgement. And my argument in defence is that if I have survived so far and so long with these attributes, I would rather not change. God knows what change would do.”

The unforgettable Tour, the most talked about and flamboyant series of star concerts triggered off with a record crowd turn out that took the organizers for a surprise.

Even before the start of the show a massive crowd of 12,000 people had filled up every available space to catch a glimpse of the Bachchans as well as the other film stars of Bollywood.

The security men had a difficult time trying to control the people

First to appear on the stage was the actor with the best sense of timing for humour from the younger generation of actors, Ritesh Deshmukh.

He came in his trademark naughty and comedy laced style and opened the show.
His female fans were seen going ecstatic and was left asking for more as Ritesh ended up his performance.

The Unforgettable Tour is prepped for its debut show in Los Angeles on 26 July, at the Sports Arena, which will house more than 13,000 Indian cinema aficionados.

The Unforgettable performers will see supporters and fans from around the globe as ticket-buyers for the L.A. show  include Indians, South Asians, Brazilians, Armenians, Iranians and Russians.

With the tour seeing unprecedented success in Toronto and Trinidad, the U.S. guarantees a lot more. The Unforgettable Tour will move on to 8 more cities before reaching UK, Holland and Germany.

The tour brings together Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Riteish Deshmukh and the music directors Vishal-Shekhar.

Adding to the grandeur, Madhuri Dixit will be joining the US leg of the show. She said, “I am very excited to be associated with the Unforgettable Tour. There have been attempts in the past to bring Bachchan and me together onstage, but it didn’t materialize.  Now through the Unforgettable and Wizcraft, I will have the pleasure of performing with him, Aishwarya and Abhishek on the same stage. I am really excited about reaching out to my fans.”

Starting in Los Angeles on July 26, the tour will move on to eight other cities before reaching UK, Holland and Germany

All the actors performances have been choreographed by Shiamak Davar.

On her association with the tour, Madhuri said, “I am very excited to be associated with the Unforgettable Tour. There have been attempts in the past to bring Mr Bachchan and me together onstage, but it didn’t materialise.  Now through the Unforgettable and Wizcraft, I will have the pleasure of performing with him, Aishwarya and Abhishek on the same stage. I am really excited about reaching out to my fans.”

The Rogers Centre will be packed to the rooftop Friday night with ecstatic, cheering fans — but neither the Blue Jays nor the Argonauts are playing . Instead fans are there to take in a show featuring some of Bollywood’s biggest stars.

“Unforgettable” — a song and dance extravaganza — is kicking off its 40-date world tour with a show in Toronto Friday night.

The show features Amitabh Bachchan, the veteran over 150 films, along with his son Abhishek Bachchan and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

The young couple are considered the Brangelina of Bollywood, and Aishwarya Rai was crowned Miss World in 1994.

“Unforgettable” also features of number of other Bollywood A-listers like Preity Zinta, Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty.

The show is billed as a “best of” Indian cinema, with 70 songs from different films to be reproduced on stage.