Bollywood Road Show

India's A-List Family Kicks Off Bollywood World Tour

(AP)  India's A-list family kicked off their glitzy Bollywood world tour Friday in Toronto, showcasing a $1 million-per-show stage production.

Revered patriarch Amitabh Bachchan, son Abhishek Bachchan and his wife and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan star in "The Unforgettable Tour."

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Photos: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

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Joining them are a raft of other Bollywood stars such as Preity Zinta, Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty. Shetty took part in the British TV show "Celebrity Big Brother" in 2007.

The show is being billed as a "best of" India cinema - known for its elaborate costume and musical numbers - with 70 songs from different films reproduced on stage.

"It feels good to be able to bring an entertainment quality that matches with anything else in the rest of the world and do it for basically an expatriate audience that misses this kind of entertainment," Amitabh Bachchan said in Toronto.

Zinta said she believes the tour is just the start of the Bollywood industry expanding around the world.

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Photos: Bollywood Awards

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"There was a time when there were very few shows, only Indians would watch our films," she said. "Today our films are being screened all across the world. It's not just people from India originally who are watching these films, it's people from everywhere all across the globe that are now watching our films."

The cross-continent tour will hit 11 cities including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Rotterdam, Vancouver and Trinidad.

Ticket prices have been quoted in a range from about $300 to nearly $1,000.

[tngreen]

Ouch, I was going to say "please come to Atlanta," but I could not afford those prices. We love you anyway, Ash!