Riteish Deshmukh launches Legends Walk

The actor is readying a boulevard in Bandra that will be similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with star handprints embedded into the sidewalk
Riteish Deshmukh has grand plans. The actor is has launched a project called the Legends Walk, similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame (where over 2,400 celebrities have been given “stars” which have been embedded into the sidewalk), Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (in front of which over 200 stars have left their hand and foot impressions) and Leicester Square in London (which is also surrounded by floor-mounted plaques with star names and handprints).While these cultural monuments have served as inspiration, Riteish promises that his project will be different.
Says Riteish, “The idea came to me a couple of years ago, when I visited Leicester Square and saw the floor plaques. We have some legendary actors in Hindi films too, so why don’t we have something like this in Mumbai? Once I started working on it, some time went into figuring out the right name, where to do it, etc. We finally decided on the Legends Walk title and are planning to do it on Bandra promenade. Most importantly, we had to get all the big Bollywood personalities’ handprints. We started working on this seven months ago, and now we have over 20 stars’ prints.”
Riteish has registered the logo already and says most stars were thrilled with the idea. “They asked me how I’d thought of it, and I said I was doing this as a fan. I’ve grown up watching Hindi movies and would love to see actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, etc come together on the Legends Walk, along with present day stars. The place will be ready soon, and the handprints will be encased in metal to make sure they are weatherproof.”
Some of the personalities whose handprints Ritiesh has already got include Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar, Shatrughan Sinha, Dharamendra, Sadhana, Waheeda Rehman, Vinod Khanna, Zeenat Aman, Asha Bhonsle, Pran, Rishi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Mithun Chakroborty, Salman Khan and Dilip Kumar. Riteish adds, “I got Salman and Salim Khan’s handprints on Wednesday, and Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt have agreed to do theirs shortly. I have to say that this is not just my baby. I couldn’t have done this without the help of my friends. Karan (Johar) knew about this right from the start and helped me through it all. While Abhishek spoke to Mr Bachchan, Tusshar (Kapoor) spoke to Jeetendra, Esha (Deol) to Dharmendra, and Farah Khan took me to meet Manoj Kumar. They have really been there for me and I appreciate their kindness.”