Amitabh Bachchan voted Indian of the Year

Amitabh Bachchan voted Indian of the Year through the annual TOI-TNS poll. An overwhelming 15% of the 1,005 people who polled in the survey chose the Big B, while the next best, Sachin Tendulkar and Sonia Gandhi, got the thumbs up from only about a third that number. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Steel Baron Lakshmi Mittal, and Bollywood's current favourite couple Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachcahan all got a 4% of the votes. Chennai was one city in which the Big B was pipped to the post by several others, including Sonia and Sachin, polling just 3% of the votes in this southern metro. In Bangalore, he was tied for the top slot with Infosys founder NR Narayan Murthy. Apart from the South, in Kolkata too, Amitabh Bachchan faced tough competition, where the state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was a close second to the Big B with 13% to his 14% and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen a close third at 12%.

Ravi Chopra wants to cast Amitabh Bachchan as Bhisma & Rani Mukherjee as Draupadi

Ravi Chopra has been toying with the idea of making 'Mahabharat' epic into a film. Now he is busy wrapping up the post-production work of 'Baabul'. The buzz is he wants to cast Amitabh Bachchan as Bhisma and Rani Mukherjee as Draupadi. He says, "I will not disclose my cast yet. It's too early to talk about that. A film demands more glamour and our budget is Rs 150 crore, for part one and two. We are going to get a special effects team from Hollywood and it will have an international look, so that we can market it abroad." This 6-hour marathon is expected to be the longest in the history of Bollywood. It will release in 2 parts - part I on one Friday and the part II on the following Friday.