September 10, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 09, 1429

MUMBAI, Sept 9: The wife of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan has apologised after a comment she made snowballed into a row with a nationalist politician and prompted calls for a boycott of India’s first family of acting.

Actress and lawmaker Jaya Bachchan ran into controversy at the weekend after saying that she preferred to speak Hindi rather than Marathi, the widely-spoken language in the home of the Indian film industry, Mumbai.

A nationalist politician here interpreted the comment as a slur on Marathi speakers, demanded an unconditional apology and called on his supporters to shun the Bachchan family’s films and the products they advertise.

But Jaya Bachchan was quoted in the Mumbai Mirror newspaper on Tuesday as saying: “I am very sorry if I have hurt the sentiments of Marathi-speaking people in Mumbai and Maharashtra (state).

“My remark about choosing to speak in Hindi at the music launch of a Hindi film was said innocently. Why would I go out of my way to malign the city that has given us everything”.

—AFP