Shah Rukh Khan, Zoya Akthar give Jeff Bezos a taste of Bollywood
The Amazon head announced Prime Video will double investment in India
It was a Bollywood welcome for Amazon’s global CEO Jeff Bezos who is currently in India to promote the company’s investments in the country.
Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Kamal Haasan and filmmaker Zoya Akhtar were in attendance at a welcome party in Mumbai organised by Amazon Prime Video that saw Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez as chief guests.
It was a starry evening for Bezos as he opened up about his journey and his bond with India during a conversation with superstar Shah Rukh Khan and filmmaker Zoya Akhtar.
The event was also attended by Riteish Deshmukh and his wife Genelia, Vidya Balan and her husband Siddharth Roy Kapur, Arshad Warsi, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, and Ali Fazal among others.
When Bezos opened up about getting a role in ‘Star Trek Beyond’, Khan went in and asked him to practice the art of giving an audition for a Hindi movie, leaving Bezos surprised.
Modifying a few lines from his film ‘Don’, Khan asked Bezos to recite: “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai, namumkin hai [It’s not just difficult to capture Don, but impossible].”
The moment was shared by actor Riteish on his Twitter handle, which soon went viral on social media.
Prime investment
During his visit, Bezos also announced that the online streaming platform Amazon Prime Video was performing well in India, which is why the company decided to double down the investment in the country.
“It’s working great. The number of hours Prime Video is watched in India in the last two years has grown by six times. Prime Video is working well all over the world, and there is no place it is doing better than in India. It’s incredible,” Bezos said. “We have actually just made a decision to double down our Prime Video investments here in India.”
From drama, crime, suspense to thriller, Amazon Prime will be coming with diverse projects this year. Filmmaker Kabir Khan’s ‘The Forgotten Army: Azaadi Ke Liye’, Abhishek Bachchan’s ‘Breathe 2’, musical ‘Bandish Bandits’, Manoj Bajpayee’s ‘The Family Man 2’ and Pankaj Tripathi, Fazal, Rasika Duggal’s ‘Mirzapur 2’ are some of the projects in the pipeline.
Bezos, who is ranked amongst top most global billionaires, was on a three-day India visit.