Bachchans not to celebrate Holi this year

Jaya Bachchan said, "My mother-in-law (Teji Bachchan) passed away this year so we are not going to celebrate Holi."

Although this is going to be Aishwarya Rai's first Holi after her wedding, the Bachchan family is not planning to celebrate the festival this year.

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"My mother-in-law (Teji Bachchan) passed away this year so we are not going to celebrate Holi. In fact, we will try to avoid attending any such parties too," Jaya Bachchan told reporters.

She was in the capital with husband Amitabh Bachchan for the launch of Anil Dharkar's book "Icons: Men & Women Who Shaped Today's India" on Wednesday.

When asked about her icon, Jaya said, "My grandson is my icon".

Despite being generally perceived as not being media friendly, Jaya was very polite and forthcoming at the event.

Asked if she would give credit to her husband for her happiness, Jaya said, "Of course. In fact I will give credit to my entire family - my kids, my son-in-law (Nikhil Nanda), daughter-in-law and my grandchildren (Agastya and Navya Naveli) for my happiness."

She added that real happiness comes from "positive thinking and one should be always positive in life".

The Big B features as one of the 20 icons in Dharker's book, and when the journalists asked her about her husband's iconic status, Jaya smiled and said: "Ghar ki murgi daal barabar (familiarity breeds contempt)."

Told that she was missing from the screen for a long time, Jaya informed that her next release is going to be journalist-poet-author Jayabrato Chatterjee's "Love Songs - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow".

"It is a nice film, watch it," she said.

The film was premiered at the March 6-13 10th Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image's International Film Festival.