DURBAN, March 19: Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai were among thousands of fans flying in to reinforce the ‘Bharat Army’ before India’s World Cup semifinal against Kenya on Thursday.

The Bharat Army (Indian army), a copy of England’s ‘Barmy Army’, was formed during the 1999 World Cup by Indian cricket fans in Britain.

Actor Aamir Khan, who played the lead role in the Oscar-nominated Hindi blockbuster Lagaan (land tax), a film with a cricket theme, was also expected for the Durban day-nighter.

Bachchan, revered in India, was voted the millennium’s greatest star of stage and screen in a BBC Online poll four years ago ahead of Lawrence Olivier, Humphrey Bogart and Charlie Chaplin.

Numerous chartered flights have been organised in recent days from India. There has been a scramble for match tickets, with politicians also near the head of the queue, since India qualified for the semifinals after winning seven matches in a row.

Durban, the major port on South Africa’s east coast and main link with the Indian subcontinent, is home to many of the country’s substantial ethnic Indian population.—Reuters