It
is not uncommon in India for actors
and sportspersons to outdo scientists
and national leaders in popularity.
So it was not any surprise when an
actor received more votes than anyone
else in an Indian of the year poll
conducted by a leading news channel.
Amitabh Bachan has been voted emphatically
as the Indian of the year.
He
polled more votes than many leading politicians
including Sonia Gandhi and industrialist Ratan
Tata. Not surprisingly, his closest competitor
was Sachin Tendulkar. Bacchhan has had a pretty
ordinary year by his standards, but even that
saw him win the votes of thousands. The only region
where he was beaten by others was the south, especially
Chennai which seemed to be in favour of Sachin.
It is also an interesting fact that Aamir Khan
and Sanjay Dutt were among the ten people who
had been nominated for the votes by the news channel,
but both of them, even with blockbusters against
their name this year couldn’t match up to
Bacchhan. No wonder he is called the Big B.
