/> After playing Auro from Paa in a number of off-screen events and campaigns the Big B will now assume the personality of Vijay Harshwardhan Mallik the media commentator in Ram Gopal Varma's Rann, to appear on 30 December on a news channel (Times Now) to do a year-end round-up of activities

"And we aren't just talking about entertainment-related activities, " marvels Rann's co-producet Sheetal Talwar who was present when Mr Bachchan, in what would rank as the last in a chain of firsts, became the first actor from anywhere in the world to go on national television as a news anchor holding forth on events of the year from the world.

"And it was events from the world of global politics. Mr Bachchan just took over the television space as though he had done news analysis all his life. It was an amazing experience, " says Talwar.

On Thursday night we'll hear Mr Bachchan talking on roughly 6 global issues of 2009: Indian national politics, terrorism, cricket, swine flu, recession and Obama on an hour-long segment.

This would be the first of several media-related activities that the Big B is scheduled to participate in before Rann releases.

Apparently he intends to assume whatever character he plays in his forthcoming films and promote the film as the character rather than ‘Amitabh Bachchan'.