Veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai has appealed to Hindi film icons like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan as well as the media to avoid referring to the industry as Bollywood.

"My sincere appeal to our industry and Amitabh Bachchan, SRK and media not to allow Hindi cinema named as Bollywood," Ghai tweeted.

"Even if name, Bollywood is an unavoidable brand now. We still can attach with words like Hindi Cinema and call it as Bollywood Hindi Cinema," he added.

Ghai, who has films like 'Kalicharan', 'Karz', 'Hero', 'Ram Lakhan', 'Saudagar' and 'Khalnayak' to his credit also opined that "someone scoffed us as copycat and named us as Bollywood and we were silent and lost the dignity Hindi cinema of India".