Big B is IIFA, UN ambassador in Bangkok

Even as IIFA Awards 2008 kickstarted on Friday, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan played the dual role of being the IIFA ambassador as well as a United Nations ambassador by planting a tree to promote UN's plant a billion trees initiative. CNN-IBN's Rohit Khilnani caught up with him.

Rohit Khilnani: Will you welcome me to Bangkok or should I welcome you here?

Amitabh Bachchan: No, no. You should welcome me. We are very happy that you are here to cover our event. As you can see there is a host of events and there is a lot of flurry of excitement. We are very happy that this is happening. What started off as another awards ceremony — basically to recognise Indian creative talent outside India — has now developed into a wonderful event where we share business ideas, we share common events to raise money for charity and we take up a common cause affecting the world, for example global warming. So all in all, it is very exciting.

Rohit Khilnani: What was the idea of planting a tree?

Amitabh Bachchan: Well, more greenery. When I was here last, United Nations had launched a campaign called the Billion Tree Campaign and they want to grow a billion more trees for the sake of the environment. It was just a symbolic gesture. As I said, in my speech at the awards ceremony earlier, when I was here last I planted a tree at the UN centre here. It was a Champa tree. It was a very symbolic gesture of a relationship between Thailand and India. I hope the tree grows and flourishes and bears fruit to strengthen our bond.

Rohit Khilnani: Sir, are you looking forward to the premiere of Sarkar Raj?

Amitabh Bachchan: Yes, of course. As always we look forward to every film of ours and hopefully, it will be as enjoyable for you as it was for us while we were making it.

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