Amitabh Bachchan, mega-star of Bollywood cinema, has finally got a statue of himself in 'Madam Tussauds', the famous waxwork museum in London

Star of more than a hundred movies, Amitabh has been wooing audiences since the days of "Amar, Akbar, Anthony" in the 1970's, albeit in Hindi. In fact, Amitabh Bachchan's failure to transform himself from a 'Bollywood' star into a 'Hollywood' one is probably the reason why the only people who have not heard about him are in the West.

The impact of "Bollywood" in Asia cannot be underestimated.

These Technicolor, song-a-minute extravaganzas, sung by ample-bosomed, wide-hipped, doe-eyed starlets on the hilltops of Shimla or Switzerland, are just the kind of dramas many everyday, working folk are lapping up. An inability to speak Hindi is not a barrier to enjoying the films.

Of course the other reason for the emergence of Bollywood movie stars in the UK mainstream media could be the impact of satellite channels like Star TV, the Indian Satellite channel now owned by Rupert Murdoch, owner of the SkyTV network in the UK. Star TV, a largely Hindi-based channel is broadcast over the entire Asia Pacific region as well as Europe and the UK.

Which brings us back to the principle reason for Amitabh Bachchan's entry into the hallowed halls of beeswax, to stand among Royalty, diminutive pop stars like Kylie Minogue and mass murderers like Crippen!

A survey on the BBC website saw our "Bollywood" star feature as the nation's favourite Internet polling film hero; fending off stiff competition from Lord Lawrence Olivier and Sir Alec Guinness. Surprised executives at the BBC immediately launched a press release that allegedly led to the commission that led to the recently unveiled waxwork model.

Madame Tussauds tentatively announced that if Amitabh's waxen alter ego is successful then they might commission more "Bollywood" stars.

The interesting part of this tale is that fact that BBC executives were surprised that so many Asians are online. Personally I think we should immediately commission a full list of Hindi movie stars who should be cast in wax alongside the other hopefuls from the poll that included Raj Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Sharukh Khan and Ashwariya Rai. No doubt this should keep Madame Tussauds busy until the next millennium!

As for Mr Bachchan….how about Sir Amitabh?, or better still Lord Amitabh? Services to Bollywood filmmaking for so long deserve to be internationally recognised.

Click here to visit the Madame Tussauds site.

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