Siddi tribe elated on meeting Bachchan during Guj ad shoot

Vadodara: Siddi Tribe artistes, who participated in the advertisment shoot by megastar Amitabh Bachchan in Sasangir, are overjoyed to have met him during his Gujarat tourism promotion campaign.

"We are very lucky in getting the opportunity of seeing Bachchan who spent ten minutes (with us) when our community artistes were participating in `Dhamal Dance` during the ad film shoot," Ibrahim, a Siddi tribe artiste said. "We had never expected it and photographs with him (Big B) are going to be for life long rememberance," he said. Describing the tribal people, Bachchan wrote on his blog, "Siddi tribe, a people of African descent now naturalised in Gujarat....apparently they were brought by erstwhile Maharajas (Kings) many years ago for the purpose of labour and have now settled here. Their features are African, but they speak Gujarati and sometimes their native Swahili." Bachchan also gifted Rs 100 to a local boy, whom he spotted jumping promply into a river along with a group when the director of the commercial was shooting a scene of kids from another village enjoying a swim in the waters. Ramzaan, who was elated to receive the currency reward from the superstar said, "I will preserve it forever." PTI