Anjali Rao interviews superstar Amitabh Bachchan for CNN's 'Talk Asia'.

Let's discuss your personal career. You've been in this industry for a good thirty years now. You're this...
Forty actually.

Forty years. My Lord.
I began in 1969. Yeah.

You're the son of a famous poet. How did you get started in acting?
You know we all have some elements of performance as we're growing up. When you're in kindergarten, you're on the stage, and you do your school shows and you're little amateur performances.

Then when I graduated and looked for a job in Calcutta, I was working for a British agency, managing agency house and there were theatre groups, a lot of theatre... amateur theatre on stage.

And I joined those groups, and we did even more serious theatre. Joining the film industry is a huge exercise, and we still don't know how the heck one gets into movies.

There isn't any kind of a formal procedure. It was during that time that Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, who was a very fine gentleman and made some wonderful films, was casting for his new film.

And some of the newcomers that he was wanting were very friendly with my brother who was also posted in Bombay at that time. And he, you know, showed my photograph. They showed interest. I came down to Bombay. That's how I got my first job.

Sholay remains an incredibly important film. Why do you think that it captured the imagination of Indian audiences the way that it did and that it's stayed like that?
I think Sholay had many elements that merged with what Indian cinema and the psyche of the Indian audience felt at that time. It was great fun. There was great retribution. There was the conquest of good over evil.

There was the hope of widow remarriage, a great moral constraint in our society. There was great camaraderie between friends. There was music, there was song and there was action and there was just such a healthy mixture.

Initially though, it was declared a...commercial flop. Did that worry you? I mean given that it was so close to when things were already taking off.
You know, it's interesting that you mention that, because it released on Friday and by Saturday it was almost a disaster and Ramesh Sippy and Salim-Javed and myself, we met at our house-my house and we said...

That's the director, the writer and yourself?
Yes, and we said, 'Gosh you know, this is a bomb and what do we do.' And we sat down to analyze what had gone wrong.

And it was felt that there was-an earlier release of mine called Deewar, which was again written by Salim-Javed, directed by Mr. Yash Chopra where I die in the film. And they felt that perhaps the audience has had enough of me dying in, therefore killing me in Sholay was not such a good thing to do.

Because you deprived the audience a) of my life and b) deprived my life for the possibility of a widow remarriage, which was a very important moral message that was going through. And we said yeah that's it, 'what can we do now?' So...it was decided that we should re-shoot that portion and make me alive again and...

You endured something of a slump in the 1990s.
Yeah.

And went bankrupt--
Yeah.

Around 2000. Did you think it was all over for you or did you know that one day that you'd be able to come back?
One never ever thinks of it at that point in time. The desire is, or the thinking really is, 'No, no, no, this couldn't be happening to you.' And 'how do I get out of it?' The intention really is to survive. And you look for opportunities where you can do these things. I said, 'I'm an actor and I should be acting.'

So I went across to some producers and said, 'I'm without a job. I don't have any money. I need to work.' And they were kind enough to offer me some roles. I started working. And gradually was able to pay back each and every creditor.

I know you're not a fan of talking about Slumdog which everybody knows that, you know, you did not like.
No...whoever told you that.

It's just in everything I've read.
Yes sometimes what you read isn't always correct.

So I hear.
But that was an unnecessary controversy that was put on my shoulders. I write a blog and I invite comments from people who read it. And I get about five to six hundred comments everyday because I write everyday. And all I did was that in my blog, I said you know 'so and so has said this about the film, so and so has said this about the film, what do you feel?'

And that was cut and pasted by some bright journalist in certain parts of the world and put together as my comments and my reaction to the film when in fact it was entirely untrue. So I was wrongly accused. I did get to see the film. I thought it was a very well made film.

Most recently you hit the headlines amidst this violence that's been taking place in certain cities in Australia against Indian students and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says that it's nothing to do with any sort of racial motivation. Yet you turned down an honorary doctorate from an Australian university, how come?
I just felt very strongly that with all this happening there, with me to, visit the country, to accept an honour or be honoured when other members of my country are being dishonoured, didn't seem right. And I just took a personal decision and...asked to be excused.

Ok. You are the most famous man in India.
Goodness...

Don't look so surprised!
Most certainly not. No.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having such recognition?
Well any kind of recognition brings with it a lot of responsibility, not just for yourself or your family but for society and the country that you represent or a part of.

Obviously our behaviour, our attitude, how we conduct our lives, what we say, what we do...is all so microscopically looked at that at times it becomes difficult to be able to be just another normal human being, which is what we are. But yes, it brings with it recognition and we enjoy that. We love adulation.

We like the fans and we love them and we want to reciprocate in as an equal amount as possible. So yes recognition is good.

We appreciate that but we also appreciate the fact that they have the liberty to be able to tell us if they feel we are doing something wrong and it is our prerogative to decide whether we want to correct it or want to go ahead with it.