File picture of Indian film superstar Amitabh Bachchan
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is furious at an allegedly fake online video that has dragged him into the country's raging political war by showing him endorsing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the next Prime Minister of India.
The 70-year-old Bollywood actor went into a tweeting frenzy when the video started circulating on Wednesday, saying: "FAKE!! FAKE !! FAKE !!! APPALLED AND ANGERED BY THIS ILLEGAL ACT ON ME... PUTTING IT UP NOW, DO READ AND SEE AND CONDEMN!!!"
He has demanded action against the person who uploaded the video.
The veteran actor's outrage was followed by a quick response this morning from Narendra Modi, who tweeted: "Agree with @SrBachchan . The author of the fake video should take action immediately and apologize to Amitabh ji."
The video has emerged at a time Mr Modi seems set to be anointed the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate ahead of national polls in May.
Following Mr Bachchan's strong protest, Utpal Jivrajani, a music composer from Rajkot, admitted he had uploaded the video on YouTube and apologised. Mr Jivrajani, however, denied creating the video.
"I have nothing to do with this video. I just got it on WhatsApp from one of the many groups I am associated with and when I found it interesting I uploaded it," he told PTI.
"On August 15, I received this video of Mr Amitabh Bachchan and I found it very interesting, so I uploaded it. But when I realised that it has enraged him and our Chief Minister Narendra Modi, I have apologised to both of them and now I have deleted it from YouTube," he said, adding he is in no way aligned to either the BJP or the Congress politically.
Mr Bachchan, who is the brand ambassador of Gujarat and has done a series of ads for the state's tourism, has always distanced himself from politics.
Mr Bachchan said someone had taken the voiceover he recorded for a Lead India campaign for the Times of India newspaper in 2007 and juxtaposed it with a different set of visuals to make it seem like he was endorsing Mr Modi.
"SOMEBODY has made a fake video by using my voice and text of what I spoke in the original, and falsely and mischievously, interspersed it with visuals which indicate a campaign for the promotion of the Hon Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi!!" tweeted the actor, straining his 140-character limit on the micro-blogging site. "(I am) infuriated and angered."
Fans retweeted his angry messages several times and even slammed the video on YouTube.