|
|
Change Your Life! |
Amitabh Bachchan’s life threatened by mafia |
|
News
|
|
|
August 27, 2000
NEW DELHI (AP) - One of India's most prominent actors was provided government security after he received extortion threats from a powerful underworld organization, a newspaper reported Saturday. Amitabh Bachchan, 56, wrote to India's Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani saying that he and his family felt vulnerable following the calls at his residence and on his mobile phone, the Pioneer newspaper reported. "With so much at stake and with the prevailing conditions in the country, I feel terribly threatened," Bachchan wrote to Advani, according to the Pioneer. The report did not give details of the threats but quoted intelligence officials as saying that they came from a gang of extortionists operating from the Middle East. Police have registered 332 cases of extortion in Bombay where wealthy film directors and actors and real estate developers have been targeted for money by the mob. Bombay, 1,150 kilometers (690 miles) southwest of New Delhi, is the center of Hindi film-making and India's financial hub. More than 90 people were killed last year in Bombay in gunbattles with police or rivalry between different mafia groups. Police believe many gangs are controlled by bosses living in Dubai or other Middle Eastern countries. Bachchan, one of the longest lasting super stars of the Hindi film industry, has acted in dozens of films from the late 1960's to the early 1990's. His movies are also popular in East Asia and the Middle East where there is a large Indian expatriate population. Bachchan began to produce television shows after he retired from films. Currently he hosts a Hindi version of the popular American show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" |