MUMBAI: A week before the release of JP Dutta’s Umrao Jaan starring Abhishekh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, a coffee table book on the making of the film was launched by Adlabs on 29 October.

The film will be released this Friday – 3 November.

Present at the launch were director J.P Dutta, actors Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Divya Dutta, Puru Rajkumar, music director Anu Malik, art director Bijon Dag Gupta, fashion designer Anna Singh and Adlabs spokesperson Tushar Dhingra. Adlabs is handling marketing and distribution of Umrao Jaan.

When asked about the need to launch a coffee table book for the audience Dutta said, “Like Ruswa’s book, this coffee table book will also give the audiences an idea about the poetry, literature and Urdu language of the era of the 19th century. We wanted to share with the audience the thought and the detailing that go into making a film.”

In recent times with movies like Krrish, Omkara, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and Jaan-E-Mann, it has been a trend to publish coffee-table books. However, these were only for private circulation.

Adlabs has gone a step further and is showcasing coffee-table books of Umrao Jaan in Adlabs multiplexes across the country. These books will be made available to the public and audiences to see and read, but will not be sold.

Dutta further added, “The face of Umrao Jaan (Aishwarya Rai), the music of Umrao Jaan (Anu Malik) and the word of Umrao Jaan (Javed Akhtar) are the biggest strengths of my film.”

Aishwarya said, “This book is a revelation for the audience but for me it is memories.”  

The book has been designed by Rahul Nanda. Sharan and Monika Asrani contributed towards the literature of the book.

Along with Umrao Jaan, other books that will also be seen at the stand are Lights Camera Masala (book on Abhishek Bachchan starrer Bluffmaster) by Sheena Sippy and a book on the making of Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.