Keeping the Nepal quake victims in his prayers, megastar Amitabh Bachchan remembered his first trip to the Himalayan country in 1954, which was also his maiden visit to a foreign nation. The 72-year-old actor said during his growing years, Nepal was a dream geographical location and even though it was a foreign land, it had “several universal qualities with India”.
“I visited Nepal in 1954. We were still living in Allahabad... Babuji had desired a meeting with some of his very close literary contemporaries. We flew from Patna airport to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, in a twin engined propeller Dakota aircraft, that warhorse of the World War 2 era, and perhaps those that have interest in aeronautics, the most sturdy and long lasting aircraft to date,” Bachchan recalled in his blog.
“It was my very first experience on a plane, and of course my very first visit to a foreign country. The excitement generated was beyond compare. I was in some very superior space during those times, my worth and value among my friends reaching its peak,” he added.
Bachchan later returned to the country on several occasions mostly for film shoots and he said there was a massive change in Nepal in terms of development and landscape but the love for Indian films remained.