Amitabh Bachchan
Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan will be the first
Indian celebrity to lend his voice to Amazon’s Alexa digital
assistant starting next year, as the Silicon Valley giant expands
its presence in the massive market.
The 77-year-old actor has been a household name in India for
nearly half a century, and his deep baritone is instantly
recognisable to listeners in the country of 1.3 billion.
Foreign firms such as Amazon have spent tens of billions of
dollars in India in recent years as they fight for a piece of the
Asian giant’s burgeoning digital economy.
In a blog post on Monday, Amazon India said Bachchan’s “voice
experience” feature will become available for purchase on Alexa
next year.
“It will include popular offerings like jokes, weather, shayaris
(poetry), motivational quotes, advice and more,” the firm said.
Alexa first rolled out celebrity voice options last year with
actor Samuel L. Jackson, following a similar move by Google the
year before, which gave users the option of hearing singer John
Legend on the Google Assistant.
“I am excited to create this voice experience,” the Bollywood
megastar said on Amazon’s blog.
“With voice technology, we are building something to engage more
effectively with my audience and well-wishers.”
His earlier foray into vocal blogging in 2010, “Bachchan
Bol-Bachchan Speak”, allowed fans to listen to pre-recorded
messages by the star at the push of a button.
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In addition to competing with voice-activated devices such as
Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant for consumers, Amazon is battling
Walmart-backed Flipkart and JioMart, owned by Asia’s richest man
Mukesh Ambani, for a share of the online retail market.
The tech giant, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, the world’s
richest person, is also trying to win eyeballs with its streaming
service that competes with Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar.
Bachchan and his family have been among India’s highest-profile
coronavirus patients.
The superstar, his actor son Abhishek, actress daughter-in-law
Aishwarya Rai, and granddaughter Aaradhya were all admitted to
hospital in July. All four have since been released.
The veteran star returned to work last month filming India’s
version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” after authorities eased
coronavirus curbs on movie and TV shoots.
Nevertheless, with cases in India nearing five million,
authorities in Mumbai — the home of Bollywood — have asked
production houses to ensure that common facilities are regularly
sanitised, masks worn and social distancing “followed as far as
possible”.
Bachchan’s last film, comedy-drama “Gulabo Sitabo”, went
straight to Amazon’s streaming service in June, after theatres in
India shut down in March due to pandemic fears.
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