"Initially, it was just the music directors [like Kalyanji-Anandji], who took a group of musicians and singers and went out to London and New York and performed on stage," he said. "I think it was in 1980 or 1981, that Lataji [Mangeshkar] was doing a concert in New York and she asked me to join her just to be able to introduce her to the audience," he recalled. Though he said the audience was 'very small, about 3,000 people, in Madison Square Garden,' it should be noted that such a number was a record breaker for an Indian performer in those years.

"She said to me that while you're here, why don't you sing a song?" Amitabh continued. "I had just recorded a song for a film of mine called Lawaaris. I did that [sang the song live]. That's how things started.

"When Jaya and I got married in 1973, we went to England and we were called to a show in Southall. There were only five people in the audience: two of them were my relatives and three were ushers," he said chuckling. "Now, it has grown to massive venues like the Madison Square Garden, Wembley Stadium in London, where we had 17,000 people, and the Giants Stadium in New Jersey in the 1980s where we had 17-18,000 people.

"Because of the clientele, I think, the promoters and organisers have wanted to keep putting in more effort in trying to bring the content to some level of excellence and present something which is grander than what they have done in the past," he added. "I hope that every time I am part of a show, it is a step forward rather than a step back. That has been our intention; we want to keep improving on these concerts."

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