April 30, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 23, 1429

MUMBAI: Indian film megastar Amitabh Bachchan has reached out to fans in cyberspace, launching a blog about his life which has triggered a flood of responses from around the world.

“The Big B,” as he is known to legions of film-lovers in movie-mad India, uses the site, blogs.bigadda.com, to share his thoughts, discuss upcoming movies and answer questions from fans. “Adda” in Hindi means a big get-together of friends.

“The advantage of this blog is that I can express my view freely and there is no restriction to it,” the 65-year-old movie legend said.

Bachchan, who launched the blog in mid-April, is following in the footsteps of other Bollywood stars such as Aamir Khan who also use the Internet to share their thoughts.

The star — whose latest film “Bhootnath,” or “Devil Uncle” — is slated for release next month, said he was not particularly Net-savvy but that friends had persuaded him to start writing.

“It gives me a chance to interact with my fans on a personal basis,” said the star, who has made more than 100 movies.

The site has become an instant hit and Bachchan has been bombarded by gushing messages from fans from as far away as Poland, the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada.

He has said he was getting so many messages that he needed to employ people to help him send the replies, otherwise he feared “the loss of my fingers.”—AFP