From Harivansh Rai to Aishwarya Rai

Ausaja with the first print poster of Namak Haraam, that's part of his private collection. Pics/Sneha Kharabe

The first thing you notice as you step inside film historian SMM Ausaja's home, is a wall covered from one end to another, with framed pictures of Hindi film posters dating back to the early 70s. Then you spot stacks of lobby card placards, original first prints of some of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan's least known works from the same period. This is clearly a collector's den. "Welcome to my obsession," Ausaja says, greeting us with a smile. For over 30 years, he has been collecting film memorabilia, a treasure trove he excavated through to put together his upcoming book, The Bachchans, which is slated to release at the end of this year.

Harivansh Rai Bachchan

"It's not a biography," the author clarifies right away. "It's a coffee-table book which is a career chronicle, the first of its kind, that covers the five most famous of the Bachchan family - Dr Harivansh Rai, Amitabh, Jaya and Abhishek and Aishwarya. It's a collection of stories told both in pictures and words that revolve around their work, filmi and non-filmi. There are first-print posters, photographs, LP/EP covers, song booklets and several nuggets that you have never seen or heard of before," Ausaja says.

A song booklet of the film Sholay (1975)

The Bachchans never got directly involved in the making of the book, although Ausaja did share the idea with Amitabh. "He is aware and they have no issues, obviously, because I am not peeping into anyone's bedroom. This is strictly about their work, hardly ground for conspiracy," Ausaja says. He has known Amitabh since the time he was working on his last book, Bollywood in Posters. "He is a man of very few words. And if he says something, you better listen, even though he poses it as a suggestion," recalling his meeting with the man in Pratiksha when the actor had asked to see the dummy. Turned out, he was impressed enough to pen the foreword and has told Ausaja that he is looking forward to the new one.

A show card of Jaya Bachchan's Doosri Sita (1974)

Given Big B's volume of work, he, quite effortlessly, ends up occupying a large chunk of the book. But the question remains - what can one say about the Bachchans, especially Amitabh, and still manage to break new ground? "I am the only author that didn't need him to write this book. This book does not chronicle his perspective through an interview. It stems from my own research over decades as a film historian," Ausaja says as he delicately rolls out a very brittle, but stunning first-print poster of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Namak Haraam. As we take in the hand-painted artwork, the film historian rattles off release dates and trivia as he continues to tell us about the book. "It was not Mr Bachchan who told me that his first film, Saat Hindustani, did not even find a release in Mumbai, even though it is counted as his debut. His first film that released here was Anand." And to get to this fact, he poured through reams of trade magazines that released between 1969-70.

Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan's wedding

The book takes off from Harivansh Rai Bachchan's life and talks about his close proximity with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and how the latter pushed for the poet to be recognised. Among the many nuggets Ausaja has shared, is one about how Harivansh Rai's debut as a lyricist was not in Amitabh's Alaap (1977), as is commonly believed. It happened in a film titled Badnam Basti (1971), where he even recorded a song in his own voice. "The song was called Mele Mein Koi Gujariya. I have a picture from that recording that I have included in the book," Ausaja says, adding, "The only way to understand Amitabh's life is to understand his father's."

For every film included in the book, Ausaja has inserted review excerpts. "I have collected them from the monthly trade magazines of that era. What did the critics say when Sholay or Zanjeer released? None of that is available on the internet. Baburao Patel called Sholay ‘disgraceful and anti-national'!"

Ausaja's collection of posters and memorabilia may be accidental stumbles, but there is a method to the madness. "There are multiple ways of acquiring memorabilia. An obvious way is to approach producers but most of them don't have anything. And if they do, they won't easily part with it. So, then, you barter. Exchange one rare poster for another. In my case, producers have come to me asking for posters of their own films," he says, adding that he has gifted posters of films like Natwarlal and Yarana to its maker Rakesh Kumar, who didn't have them. He also approaches distributors, most of whose offices are shut now. "They could have a treasure in their godowns, but most of them have found their way to chor bazaar through raddiwalas. But even there, chances of finding an original first print is negligible." The cream of his collection is courtesy Feroze Rangoonwalla. "He was the most admired collector of his time; he passed away recently. In the last 12 years, I met him almost every month, and a large chunk of my salary would go to him, but it was totally worth it."

It has taken Ausaja eight years to put together this book, that's a commissioned project by Om Books International. "This book is the fruit of my painless research and I want to it to be reference material for the Bachchans for the future generation," he says.