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| Saif: Rare feat |
Calcutta, April 3: Not Samresh Jung, not Rajyavardhan Rathore. It is Saif Ali Khan who has danced his way to Australian philatelic history with this year’s Commonwealth Games.
Chhote Nawab became the first Indian to feature on a postage stamp published in Australia by virtue of his performance in the concluding ceremony at Melbourne. This was confirmed by the Australian postal department today in response to an e-mailed inquiry from The Telegraph.
The 50-cent stamp starring Saif is among those released on March 27. It shows him on stage in a green kurti with other dancers. Saif was part of a contingent from Bollywood featuring other industry heavyweights like Rani Mukherjee and Aishwarya Rai. They have had no such luck, though.
In his reply to the e-mail, Stuart Osbourne, spokesperson for Australia Post, wrote: “This is the largest stamp programme that Australia Post has ever undertaken in support of a specific event. Though significant national events have been celebrated with stamps, it has only been since Sydney 2000 Olympics that Australia Post has celebrated events with images from those events.”
These “instant stamps”, Osbourne said, are available on sale in Australia within two days of the event happening.
“In Sydney 2000, we celebrated every Australian gold medallist on a stamp... For Melbourne 2006, Australa Post designed, produced and distributed 107 stamps in two weeks.”
The collection includes five each for the opening and closing ceremonies and 84 for each of the Australian gold medals.
Saif’s feat is rare even by Indian film industry standards. According to dealers, the only film personalities to have featured on stamps abroad are Satyajit Ray and Madhabi Mukherjee.
“The Caribbean island of Dominica had two stamps to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Berlin Film Festival ? one of Ray and another a still from his Golden Bear-winning Mahanagar that features Madhabi,” pointed out Kalyan Negal, secretary of the Indian Philatelic Traders’ Association.
Indian postage rules, however, do not allow living individuals to be featured. Rare exceptions have been made only in case of personalities like Mother Teresa, said P.K. Chatterjee, Bengal’s chief postmaster-general. And there is no plan of the Commonwealth Games being commemorated through its heroes.
But being Saif was not the reason for the actor’s philatelic appearance. “He was chosen as part of the entertainment to represent Delhi 2010’s stunning contribution to the closing ceremony. He is not a household name in Australia,” Osbourne clarified.
The appearance may be accidental but dealers in Calcutta are gung-ho about a piece of Bollywood to sell. Negal said the inquiries from prospective buyers outstripped the orders he had placed even before the stamps have reached him.
“It is a great idea to have individuals on stamps with whom people can connect. England also has a rule of not featuring living individuals on stamps except the monarch. But they made an exception after the Ashes victory last year. Our postal department should also be flexible,” he said.