Amitabh Bachchan was left feeling alarmed and overwhelmed at the same time when he went to inaugurate a jewellery outlet in Dubai and almost got mobbed by thousands of fans.

On Sunday, the people behind Damas jewellery in Dubai invited Bachchan, their brand ambassador, to launch a new outlet. But thousands of fans arrived unannounced demanding to have a look at their icon, according to information reaching here.

The crowds got so unmanageable that Bachchan had to be sneaked out of the store...only to have hordes of fans chasing the star, chanting: "Amitabh Bachchan zindabad!"

Back from Dubai Monday morning, Bachchan seemed to be baffled by the clamour. "The Damas people took me to a shopping mall. And it got really, really crowded," told Bachchan.

"The ovation was really quite embarrassing. Even after all these years I'm not quite used to people reacting in this way... It was a jewellery store in Dubai and I got really alarmed when the glass started shattering all round me.

"The crowds got uncontrollable, and I had to be whisked away to another shop within the same mall. Thousands of people followed me chanting my name. It was most embarrassing.

"Then at SAKS too they got excited. I was quickly taken away from the backdoor...It was too much. I'm overwhelmed by the response of people in Dubai...

"And very soon I'll have a special gift for them...a qawwali in my new film 'Bunty Aur Babli' featuring Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek (Bachchan) and me. I feel the qawwali is going to create a stampede.

Audiences are going to stop the screening of "Bunty Aur Babli" and ask for an encore of the qawwali. And it isn't me they're going to be watching. It's Abhishek!"