Bollywood mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Tamil mega superstar Rajnikant have paid rich compliments to each other's qualities as actors and human beings.

Bachchan said Rajnikant, whose film Sivaji is releasing today, is "perhaps the most excellent example of what India is all about, what human beings are all about and what life is all about". Pointing to humble beginning of Rajnikant as a bus conductor and his rise to stardom, Bachchan said "look at the proportions that he has reached and how much he has achieved".

"He (Rajnikant) is a very simple human being...the kind of adulation is seen for him in our country, I don't think any Indian star has ever experienced that and that speaks a lot because Hindi cinema is more prominent cinema", Bachchan said.

Rajnikant, for his part, told reporters in Chennai that there could not be any comparison between him and Bachchan.

"He (Amitabh) is a very big personality. I am too small a man in front of him", Rajnikant said on his return from Hyderabad, where he screened the Telugu version of the film for TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu.

Bachchan and Rajnikant have worked together in ‘Andha Kanoon' (1983), ‘Giraftaar' (1985) and ‘Hum' (1991). Bachchan is also said to have made a special appearance in ‘Sivaji'.