Indian cinema's "Walk of the Stars" was officially opened Wednesday on a seaside promenade in the Bandra district of Mumbai, the country's entertainment capital -- the first of two competing projects under way in the city.
Like the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Mumbai's new pathway will bear handprints and signatures of numerous actors -- along with a handful of life-size brass statues depicting some of the Indian greats.
From one of Bollywood's acting dynasties, movie star Kareena Kapoor was the main guest at the launch in a nearby hotel, where she unveiled a statue of her legendary grandfather, the late Raj Kapoor, sitting on a bench.
"I think people should come to actually dance with the stars. Some stars that are not here today with us, we can get to dance with them, touch them, feel them and actually realise what they were".
Describing herself as a "proud granddaughter", she and her father, actor Randhir Kapoor, perched with the statue for photographs -- as fans will soon be able to do on the promenade."Acting is something that the Kapoors have just lived for. Cinema is something that is in our veins, it's in our blood, and we're very, very proud to say that," she said.
The Kapoor family are the first to be honoured on the street "because they're technically the first family of Bollywood," said Nikhil Gandhi, business head of the UTV Stars television channel that has set up the walkway.
"We thought it would be a good idea for us to create something as a tribute to the biggest superstars of the industry," he told AFP. "The idea is to get fans closer to the superstars."