by Subhash K Jha

After a visit to Agra with his son to see the Taj Mahal on Tuesday, Hollywood superstar Will Smith spent the entire Wednesday catching up with Bollywood icons...

"Not with any other purpose but to acquaint himself with the biggest movie industry in the world," says a Sony spokesperson. "There was no talk of any concrete movies. Just regular back and forth of views."

Among the Bollywood icons on Will's agenda on Wednesday were directors Ashutosh Gowariker, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Ashutosh Gowariker, and Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs and UTV's Ronnie Screwvala.

Among these Ashutosh Gowariker missed his appointment with Mr Smith. "I had to rush to Delhi for an important archeological appointment regarding my film Jodhaa-Akbar. I'd have loved to meet him. I believe he was keen to know about our film industry."

But Karan Johar spent a good hour with Will Smith. "It was a good productive meeting. He's entertaining and well-informed. I was quite happy to see he was genuinely interested in our industry and in a give-and-take of ideas on cinema."

Karan will be with Will Smith again on Friday when they record an episode of Indian Idol.