Bollywood legend Amitabh hospitalised

MUMBAI: Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, who turned 66 Saturday, was taken to hospital after reportedly suffering abdominal pain, an international news agency photographer at the scene said.

The actor, who has superstar status in India, was seen leaving his home in the northern Mumbai suburb of Juhu with his actor son, Abhishek, and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, in an ambulance.

Huge crowds that had gathered outside his house to wish him happy birthday anxiously watched him leave, television pictures showed.

Bachchan, wearing a brown-coloured woollen cap and blue ensemble, was spotted lying down inside the vehicle before being supported by Abhishek and another man as he walked into hospital, the photographer said.

A news channel said Bachchan had complained of stomach pain since Friday evening.

Unnamed sources quoted by the Press Trust of India described his admission to hospital as a "routine medical check-up". Hospital officials said x-rays were taken of his stomach and chest, they added.

Bachchan was later transferred to a private hospital where he spent three weeks, including one in intensive care, after undergoing bowel surgery in November 2005.

There was no immediate comment from the hospital when contacted by a French news agency.

With a career spanning four decades in India's movie industry, doctors have warned Bachchan to slow down.

He also suffered a severe stomach injury in 1982 while shooting the film "Coolie".

Bachchan, known as "The Big B" with a distinctive white beard, flowing grey hair and baritone voice, was last seen in his first English-language movie, "The Last Lear" and has been on a world tour with his family.

Indian newspapers marked Bachchan's birthday Saturday with a series of interviews. A MUMBAI-based newspaper commented that he had "never looked better. Or fitter" when they spoke to him two days ago on a film shoot.

"I enjoy being alive, I look for a new struggle, a new experience every day. An artiste has no right to say he is satisifed, that's being defeatist," he was quoted as saying.