Chaurasia biography runs into trouble

Mumbai: Family can often be one's harshest critics. Certainly true for maestro Hari Prasad Chaurasia, whose sons have sued him over his authorised biography.

They say the book, Woodwinds of Change, gives readers the impression that they are illegitimate.

This new controversy may help retire another one around a book - Om Puri took offence when his wife, Nandita, shared details of his sex life in her book on the actor.

Tell-all biographies often run into trouble even when they don't exactly tell all. In India, celebrities have been spared the paparazzi-tabloid onslaught that say, a Brad and Angelina live with. But that page is turning, warn many.

"Some version of truth you know, some version of history, some version of the facts as they happened. You have to cover that ground. And this is precisely the ground often that upsets people,'' says Jerry Pinto, who has written a book on the actor, Helen.

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In 2008, director Satyajit Ray's wife acknowledged his affair with an actress in her autobiography, Amader Kotha. But Ray had died several years earlier.

The damage done by a biography can be insurmountable. The 2003 documentary made by British journalist Martin Bashir on Michaal Jackson would brand him a paedophile - a charge he would battle till he died.

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In 2005, director Shyam Benegal was criticised for showing Subhash Chandra Bose drinking wine in his movie based on the freedom-fighter's life.

Many celebrities prefer to cooperate with books or movies on their lives - either because they hope to have some control over the project, or because it's a way of extending their 15-seconds of fame.