Will Smith meets top Bollywood directors ...

By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service

/>Mumbai, (IANS) After a visit to Agra with his son to see the Taj Mahal, Hollywood

star Will Smith spent the next day catching up with top Bollywood filmmakers.

"Not with any other purpose but to acquaint himself with the biggest movie industry in

the world," said a Sony spokesperson about Smith's Wednesday schedule.

"There was no talk of any concrete movies. Just regular back and forth of views."

Smith, the star of hit movies like "Men In Black", is in India to inaugurate a Sony

movie channel.

Among the Bollywood faces on his agenda were directors Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker,

Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs and UTV's Ronnie Screwvala.

But Gowariker missed his meeting with the Hollywood actor. "I had to rush to Delhi for

an important archaeological appointment regarding my film 'Jodha-Akbar'. I'd have loved to

meet him. I believe he was keen to know about our film industry," Gowariker said.

But filmmaker Karan Johar spent a good hour with Smith.

"It was a good, productive meeting. He is entertaining and well-informed. I was quite

happy to see he was genuinely interested in our industry and in a give-and-take of ideas on

cinema," said Johar.

Johar will be with Smith again Friday when they record an episode of "Indian Idol".