By: Amit kumaR Agarwal
Amit.. Amitabh Bachchan.. India.. year after year at Cannes Film Festival; I hear these as the security does it's duty - many gushing about Bachchan's iconic films like Coolie, Shahenshah, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar and of course Mard - the film with a horse and a dog, where he takes on the British Empire!
On October 11, 2025, Bachchan celebrated 83 years of his iconic existence - in his age category, he is the highest paid actor not only in India or Asia or Asia-Africa - but the world.
In fact, if Raj Kapoor made Bollywood popular in Russia and the CIS countries - Bachchan took it further west to continents like Africa, Europe and the Americas.
With the writer, having travelled 75 countries across the length and breadth of the world - latest being Tanzania and Cambodia - the first name he hears on being told he is from India is Amitabh Bachchan!
The photo at 'The Great Gatsby' premier at the Grand Lumiere in Cannes Film Festival, will open the eyes of many, of the sheer magnitude of the persona of AB. A small cameo of about 5-minutes, 1-scene, in The Great Gatsby - yet Bachchan was accorded the same protocol as Leonardo, Tobey, Carrie and Baz at the Cannes.
The Bachchan fan-following made even Academy Award winner, Leonarado DiCaprio and Spidey, Tobey Maguire look at him in awe.
A concert in the famous Wembley is still very prestigious, imagine the prestige-value attached about three-decades back.
His show at Wembley in London (1990) was first for an Asian - a cue the makers of 2025 blockbuster Saiyaara took to establish the pop-icon status of the protagonist Krish Kapoor!
He not only did sold out shows then, a producer made a film out of the concert, "Jumma Chumma in London", released in top-cinemas across the world - that ladies and gentleman is Amitabh Bachchan..!