Many of my generation grew up watching Amitabh Bachchan’s movies. The ‘angry young man,’ a role he played with great success, made a great impression on us. He won remarkable acclaim and may be, arguably, the most popular film star in Bollywood’s history. But here’s the rub. In his heyday, he was merely a film star and he was judged purely on the merits of his role and acting. One wishes he had remained merely an actor, rather than the public, and very in-your-face, personality that hogs the television screens with silly commercial endorsements and now fills the news for all the wrong reasons.

Today, it’s hard to look upon him as an icon, even though it is this reputation he is furiously, some might say greedily, cashing in on while it lasts. Even Shatrughan Sinha, a yesteryear fellow actor and today a BJP leader, departed somewhat from political correctness when the entire sangh parivar, from Narendra Modi onward, is trying to capitalize on Bachchan’s welcome affiliation. All is well but, Sinha said, please stop advertising for hair oil and such products. It was reminiscent of the wonderful exchange between columnist Jug Suraiya and Bachchan sometime last year. You can read it here and make your own judgment on who won this bout!

Amitabh has skipped from one role to another very well on screen. But in real life, he has looked silly, to be kind, or unscrupulous, as Open magazine argued in a recent cover story on the superstar. Politically, he used his mother’s links to the Gandhi-Nehru family to start with and over the years he has aligned with Samajwadi Party and now the Bharatiya Janata Party. As you can imagine, the parties cover a fair spectrum of political views and, clearly, beliefs of any kind had no role to play in these affiliations.

Commercially, he’s been accused of land grabbing. Outlook magazine, in particular, launched a detailed expose that raised a number of questions and cast serious doubts over his role.  Just as he has kowtowed to any political party, he has done so with business leaders. After Subroto Roy of Sahara, a no less controversial figure himself, had bailed him out of a financial crisis, I remember Bachchan saying he would do anything for the businessman – even mop the floor, or something to that effect. In later years, he snuggled up to Amar Singh, the former Samajwadi Party leader and now it is Modi and Kerala Tourism, if they will have him.

On religion, he has been slammed for dragging Aishwarya Rai and his son Abhishek through a series of Hindu rituals before the two married, even though one would have to concede that he could have been given some privacy on these issues. However, on the social plane, Amitabh has been rightly slammed by feminists for suggesting he wanted a grandson.

Today, I flip channels when Amitabh’s ads appear on television (silly ads for pain balm or cement) or the news (Modi, Bandra-Worli Sealink inauguration ceremony controversy, Kerala tourism brand ambassador), because it is always for the wrong reasons. I wouldn’t debate the merits of his point of view (you can read that in his blog. He might have some with regard to the Bandra-Worli ceremony, where he has been used as a pawn. But the problem with Amitabh Bachchan is larger. He wants to exploit his larger-than-life image to the hilt while showing no responsibility for it. Alas, Amitabh Bachchan chose, and chose badly, the script for his life.