October 12, 2008	Sunday	Shawwal 12, 1429

MUMBAI, Oct 11: Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, who turned 66 on Saturday, was undergoing medical tests after complaining of abdominal cramps, a hospital spokesman said, as fans feared for his health.

“He has stomach pain and is undergoing tests,” Mohan Rajan, from Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital, said. He described the actor’s condition as ‘stable’ but could not confirm one report that he had an incisional hernia.

“We are giving him the best possible treatment. We understand the importance of Mr Bachchan and his value to the nation,” he added.

Bachchan, who has superstar status in India, left his home in the northern Mumbai suburb of Juhu with his actor son, Abhishek, and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, in an ambulance at lunchtime, a photojournalist said.

Huge crowds that had gathered outside his house to wish him happy birthday anxiously watched him leave, television pictures showed.

Bachchan, wearing a brown-coloured woollen cap and blue ensemble, was spotted lying down inside the vehicle before being supported by Abhishek and another man as he walked into Nanavati Hospital, the photographer said.

The film star’s secretary, Sunil Doshi, told the Times Now television channel that Bachchan “developed some kind of stomach cramp” overnight, was taken for a CT scan and other tests and was now under observation.

Bachchan was later transferred to the Lilavati Hospital where he previously spent three weeks, including one in intensive care, after bowel surgery in November 2005.—AFP