The Cult of AMITABH

He is India’s top film actor and his following verges on the incredible

- BY Vir Sanghvi CONDENSED FROM India Today

AT ANY GIVEN TIME of the day, more than 1,00,000 people are watching a tall, dark, lanky figure sing, dance, and battle the forces of evil on the screen. Every year, an estimated 40 million Indians see his films, and when he leaves his elegant house in Bombay's Juhu-Villa Parle Scheme, film industry investments worth a staggering ₹50 crores* ride on him. So much in demand is film idol Amitabh Bachchan, that producers are told that they cannot expect shooting dates before 1983.

Naturally, Bachchan does quite well out of this situation. He is said to charge between ₹15 to 20 lakh per film, and according to one estimate, earned an average of ₹36,000 a day last year.

His cult following verges on the Incredible. And an inconsolable young boy was brought all the way from Germany because after seeing Sholay, he thought that his hero had died. Bachchan once received a call from a doctor in Bombay's Nanavati Hospital, who said a girl in a coma after a severe fall kept calling the name of the Amitabh character in Amar Akbar Anthony. When the girl gained consciousness, she would not eat until Amitabh himself fed her. “That incident really shook me,” he says.

His presence on a city street is enough to draw hundreds of fans. A mountain of mail from every corner of the world arrives by each post, with letters containing both adulation and propositions. All over India, barbers try to lure customers by offering ‘Amitabh Bachchan’ haircuts, and men attempt to copy his intense, measured manner of speaking. At 38, Amitabh Bachchan is a certified superstar, Bombay's top actor and one of India's most recognizable faces.

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