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Big B voted Indian of the year
25/12/2006 08:51 - (SA)
New Delhi - Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, whose star and sex appeal remains undiminished by age, has been voted Indian of the Year, reported the Times of India on Sunday.
An opinion poll in the newspaper said 15% of Indians voted for the 64-year-old actor as the country's most popular citizen, far ahead of the 5% who backed star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and ruling Congress party president Italian-born Sonia Gandhi.
Bachchan got the most votes from housewives - 19% - and those in the 35-45 age category in the survey of 1 005 people in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore.
He was also the overwhelming choice in the Indian capital, where he completed college, with 31% of respondents voting for him.
Tendulkar, currently playing for India in a cricket series against South Africa, was second ranked, despite a slump in form over the past year.
Gandhi, who pipped Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the survey, was the second most popular choice along with Tendulkar, despite Hindu nationalist politicians questioning her foreign birth.
Singh, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai followed with 4% of the votes each.
Abhishek is Amitabh Bachchan's son.
Bachchan has several new films lined up in 2007. He was voted as the most popular screen and stage icon of all time on a BBC online survey in 2002.
- Reuters
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