Big B's way towards women's empowerment

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has suggested a novel way to promote gender equality by "giving preference to the contingent of female commandos".

The cine icon has also asked his fans and admirers to gear up for a big announcement as he shared that "a lot needs to happen in the immediate days to come".

The 73-year-old star, who is shooting for Ribhu Dasgupta's "Te3N" here, took to his blog to talk about his devised method to promote women's empowerment.

"And I try to show my sense of equality by giving preference to the contingent of female commandoes that have turned up on security duty and lie in the background with apprehension," Big B wrote.

"I call them up in front and mingled with them... rid them of their awkwardness, their shy nature or was it disciplined training of their uniform... whatever, they deserved it and they must be given equal place, equal presence and equal 'selfies'," he added.

The "Piku" actor filmed a scene for his upcoming project at Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore's abode in Shantiniketan. And the actor asserted that Tagore was way ahead of the time with his literary work depicting equality.

"They say he never wrote his poetry or his music lyrics as gender-centric... they were all neutral and depicted equality... sung by the female or the male, it remained meaningful to both, in both and for both... such foresight during those early years is worthy of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913...quite amazing," he wrote.

Amitabh, who fell in love with Kolkata and its culture after exploring the city during his work-related sojourns, is in awe with the "benevolence of the people of Bengal".

"Its been almost nine hours on the road today, and the work too, and the divine visit to Thakurbadi, and those delighted hoteliers who had prepared a special room for me to stay in to avoid the nine hour ordeal... my gratitude to them... some other day perhaps," he wrote.

"But really, the benevolence of the people of Bengal, their love and passion, their honour and their patronage, their understanding of art and culture and music and dance and just life itself is quite something".