Sheetal Patel - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
amOur megalomaniac stars don't believe in the power of elusiveness. Rather, they opt to flaunt selective prized moments in their lives not just for the camera but for a personal book that highlights the glorious chapters in their lives, of course the negatives are clearly edited out and when the book is written by a fawning fan, the process becomes that much more easier. And the reason behind sharing their private joys is certainly not noble in intention. There is moolah to be made from book sales to add to their bank balances.

Now the question to be asked is: Who buys these books? Is there a huge market for such syrupy biographies, except for the private pictures, their true lives are rarely exposed -only the glossy, picture perfect moments coupled with some anecdotes of struggle are highlighted for the benefit of the besotted fan.

Film critic Deepa Gahlot believes that the NRI market is huge and fans abroad lap up books on Bollywood. Gahlot in fact came out with her first book on Bollywood, Prtihviwallahs about five years back and the response she says was phenomenal.

To Be or Not To Be: Amitabh Bachchan's pictorial biography by Khalid Mohammed to commemorate the Big B's his 60th birthday five years paved the way for Bollywood biographies. The paperback edition gives us an inside picture on the superstar's life behind the walls of his home. With personalised accounts of the actor's family, the book certainly gives the reader a peak into Bachchan's lifestyle without really exposing the man.

In sharp contrast yet another recent book by British author Jessica Hines, Looking For the Big B – Bollywood, Bachchan & Me, throws light on the temperamental star's tantrums and quirky personality. Hines did not have it easy and despite a starry eyed approach to the man, has managed to project an honest picture of the Big B.

And what the Big B does, SRK attempts to do better. He already has three biographies dissecting his life. King of Bollyood: Shah Rukh Khan and the seductive world of Indian Cinema by Anupama Chopra, was released in August this year. The book traces his journey from Delhi to Mumbai reconstructing the factors that have lead to his phenomenal success.

What made Chopra tackle Khan as a topic when enough has been said about the man? Chopra lists her reasons in a recent blog. "The idea of writing about Shah Rukh Khan grew out of my second book Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jeyenge. When I wrote a monograph on DDLJ, I found myself becoming more and more fascinated by Shah Rukh's story, his incredible ascent and how he became the face of a post-liberalised India. King of Bollywood was never meant to be a biography. It was written as a portrait of Bollywood as seen through the life and films of Shah Rukh Khan. I hope that I've managed to create a picture of Bollywood with Shah Rukh in the foreground and many, many other things in the background."

Not to be left behind, SRK's good friend and former journalist Mushtaq Sheikh has come up with a splashy book on the superstar appropriately titled, Still Reading Khan. The pictorial biography, which costs a whopping Rs 3,000, offers some intimate pictures and personal moments of Khan and his family, which come as a boon to his fans. Says Sheikh, "Considering that this is a coffee-table book, it has done exceptionally well and we've sold around 10,000 copies in India. In fact I'm going to be coming out with a paperback edition soon."

Yet another book on SRK by Deepa Gahlot simply titled King Khan SRK spins his life saga in a simple manner. The book, the author says, attempts a midcareer assessment of King Khan as the Star reaches a career milestone of 60 films in 16 years and gets to a stage where he clearly needs to chart an unexplored territory. If it is true that every age gets the hero it deserves, then Shah Rukh Khan is the hero of the globalised information age with an image that cuts across international boundaries to reach the Indian diaspora and fans all over the world, she says.

"This book was supposed to have been released last year but that didn't happen. This book was first released in German and then reprinted in English. Internationally SRK is on a huge high and there is always a demand for books on the star," adds Deepa.

Not to be left behind, the oldies of the gold en era be it Hema Malini, Vijayanti mala Bali, Dev Anand have also brought out their biographies. And the Dutt siblings: Sanjay, Namrata and Priya too have joined the bandwagon by writing a book on their parents titled, and Mrs Dutt. The book highlights all the highs and lows the Dutts went through as a family.

Dev Anand's autobiography Romancing the Life stands out for being the most candid and no-holds barred one where he shares intimate details of his love live with the world. While his leading ladies like Zeenat Aman might squirm at his references to them, our very own Gregory Peck remains unperturbed. "This book is a true and honest effort and is not ghost written. I have scripted it by hand; no computer. My only condition to the publishers was that nothing should be changed and they had agreed," says the man.

But is there a market for these books? Atika G. Bose, Roli Books, Delhi, the publishers of and Mrs Dutt, Hema Malini: An Authorised Biography and King Khan SRK says that, "Books written by family members as in the case of and Mrs Dutt generate a huge amount of interest because they are more intimate and private. Around 6,000 copies of this book have been sold and we've already gone into a reprint. Even Hema Malini's book by Bhawna Somaiyya did exceptionally well with 6,000 copies being sold in the last eight months. Deepa's book has done well overseas and around 2,000 copies have been sold in India."

Coming back to the sales, clearly AB and SRK are leagues ahead of the Bollywood brigade at least in the South. In fact according to a spokesperson for the Odyssey Book store in Hyderabad, "Amitabh Bachchan is clearly the market leader. His books have shown a higher sales figure than even that of SRK and together books on both these personalities occupy 80 per cent of the market share. The remaining 20 per cent is equally divided amongst the other stars."

And with the sales graph showing an upward spiral, it is only a matter of time when other stars will come out with their own sanitised or otherwise versions of their lives.