The following is the transcript of Abhishek Bachchan's speech at the India Today Conclave on March 24th, 2007 in New Delhi...

Thank you, Karan.

First and foremost I would like to thank Mr. Purie, Kaveree Bamzai and the India Today group for inviting me to speak with you all.

It is a matter of great privilege to be on the same dais as a Director who is not only a dear friend but who I consider to be a beackon for Indian cinema and truly the future of Indian cinema. Coupled with a director, who I have immense respect for, who does a wonderful job representing India overseas. So thank you Karan and Mira for being such inspiration. Language lingo lingua bhasha, jaban, boli. It is a vast vocabulary out there. And this evening I could perhaps a variety of words with tentative punctuation marks or with absolutely no commas, semi columns or whatever. But then I am not a practice player with clever phrases, dialectic notion and anti arguments. There is no need for it any way. I will just let my thoughts run. Something you may think was impart my faculties.

But ladies and gentlemen I think I act, therefore, I am. And seriously I think the answer to the question before us is cinema, the new global language is as self evident as oxygen is essential for life. So see it is as easy for a follow of flock to say that 'hanji aaj cinema duniya ki bhasha hai'. Besides didn't someone wise and wonderful once state that a picture can say much more than a thousand words. And pictures or visuals I like to sounds, story, performance technique all add up to troop 24 frames a second. And that troop is heard from Kashmir to Cannes, Kanyakumari to Karlove Vary.

Of course it is no national secret that I am a child of cinema. I have been privileged to experience in close up the limitless reach and the incalculable impact of our cinema not only at home but wherever I have traveled and received my education. Doors have been opened wider, smile have been seen on people's faces and communication has been effortless simply because I belong to the hometown of India's glorious film making community. Indian cinema that is what the unprejudiced call it 'Bollywood' is employed merely by those accustomed to using short cuts, a word which finally leads no one no where in understanding the infinite value and aesthetic of our cinema. Even the most stubborn nations cannot deny that our cinema has grown and evolved to such an extent that it is the leading export not only of our economy but of a culture that is distinctly ours.

To be popular to be relished by the majority of the movie going audience here or abroad is not looked down upon any more. Those who do right of the music and highly dramatic contents in our film plots and even the elements of the fantasticated as escapist cinema are no re-evaluating their opinions. Books as well as scholastic studies are now examining how and in what form films have encapsulated the essence of the Indian reality. Needless to add here the reality that has universal residence. We have been increasingly lined eyes that international film festivals. In return we salute the work of international cinema at our film festivals.

If this is not a dialogue in the language of cinema I would ask you what is? Indeed I would like to call up all my thoughts at this point. For someone who is still learning the alphabets of the inter connection between cinema and life every day is a new lesson. Yet even with my rawness I can see that there are some constraints which have made us reach where we have on an equal footing to the rest of the world. Now because I do not want to tax you and your patience with an endless harangue I will merely mention three of the key constraints of our cinema, which reaffirm that we are the world and that our cinema converses globally and with articulation and pride not a shed of prejudice intended. The three constraints according to me, and my thoughts are not racing any more, are - our immense film heritage. Just take the purely humanistic cinema, Satyajit Ray which spoke in a forceful language about our people, their anxiety and aspirations.

Mr. Ray transmitted our ethos in stark black and white and in colour and was as much our jewel as he was that of the international cinema community. Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Ajul Gopal Krishan are a just but few of the masters of our cinema who have also spoken universal language. They have been seen, heard and saluted. As importantly Raj Kapoor, V. Shanta Ram, Mehboob Khan and Bimal Roy created a cinema that inculcated social awareness. While using the Indian style of film making, entertaining and purposeful simultaneously and there have been the grand cinema musician like say Manmohan Desai whose roller king 'Amar Akbar Anthony' has been the most delightful and yet profoundly for secularism. And surely my first contour would be incomplete without acknowledging the works of internationally fated Shekhar Kapoor, Deepa Mehta and ladies and gentleman let us put hand together for this Mira Nayar.

The second constraint has been our artist of charisma and strength. Raj Kapoor was and will always be a household name as much in Delhi as he is in Moscow. Dilip Kumar Sahab's artists pre set standards which have remained unreachable anywhere. And if I have been to be in Cairo, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Berlin, Australia, New Zealand, New York, anywhere that is what I am told "welcome, welcome, we just love your". I will let you complete their sentence. That is always embarrassing even when he is paid his just dues.

The third constant is a new constant but a very vital one. And one that has come to stay. And this constant is our cinema's connect with Asians settled in every corner of the world. As their numbers grow and the second generation of Asian become key players in every day life of the world, particularly in the U.S. and the U. K. the… chord with our cinema becomes tighter, unbreakable. In addition, the curiosity and the appreciation of our cinema by the world audience is intensifying. Our movies are no longer just screened as ethnic threatre but get a mainstream release world over. We move from South Hall to Left Square from Jackson's Height to heart of Manhattan and it doesn't stop there our movies are also being appreciated in countries like France, Germany and Poland. We are there at the Oscar and BAFTA ceremonies. We have been imitating in academy award movies. I am sure you have all seen Moulin Rouge. Our film makers, artists, writers, musicians, technicians are every where engaged in ceaseless conversation. Giving rise to new waive of creativity and I dare say a new language to cinema. So see what my thoughts have brought me, language, lingo, bhasa, jaban, boli, call the language what you will ladies and gentlemen but there at least three words that park up the same excitement the same eruption of goose flash the world over. Those three words are lights, camera and action. With that ladies and gentlemen I rest my case.

Thank you very much.