Karan Johar rejects the ‘B’ word at the Gold House Gala, earns praise from Amitabh Bachchan

At the third annual Gold House Gala in Los Angeles, Karan Johar, often referred to as "Our own Cecil De Mille," was honored with the prestigious Gold Legend Award.

Our own Cecil De Mille, Karan Johar made Indian film industry proud at the third annual Gold House Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday night when he got the prestigious Gold Legend Award.

Karan was recognized for his contributions to Hindi cinema on the same stage as Asia's finest talents. His vehement rejection of the name 'Bollywood' for the Indian entertainment business made his thank you speech stand out.

Karan Johar rejects the ‘B’ word at the Gold House Gala, earns praise from Amitabh Bachchan

Karan said, “I want to say something about this word 'Bollywood'.... We love Hollywood. But we are not a rhyme, we are a reason. We are much more than a copycat.”

Amitabh Bachchan was a pioneer in the campaign to remove the word 'Hollywood' from Indian cinema.

Mr Bachchan said, “I've been voicing my disapproval of this obnoxious coinage for as long as I can remember. I recall your book had the word 'Bollywood' in the title. Since I wrote its foreword, I should have asked you to remove that offensive word. Calling our film industry 'Bollywood' is completely unacceptable.”

Amita Khanna, a lyricist, filmmaker, cine-scholar, and producer, invented the name Bollywood to refer to the Hindi cinema business. He defended his coinage saying, “People still have a problem with the word Bollywood? But the whole notion of what's pejorative has changed. We've to see the Indian film industry as a brand. To say Bollywood is demeaning is to question a brand name like Coke or McDonalds.”

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