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I am not an outsider: Amitabh Bachchan
09th Apr 2008 09.01 IST
By Agencies

Pained by the campaign launched against him by Raj Thackeray's MNS, Bollywood mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan has said he was not an outsider in Mumbai by any stretch of imagination and would not budge from the city.

"I am not leaving this city (Mumbai) and going anywhere. Let them chuck a thousand bottles. Let them burn my effigies and conduct morchas in front of my house.

"Let them blacken my film posters and stop screening of my films. Let them attack me with stones and laathis or whatever else is there in their arsenal," Bachchan told a city tabloid on Tuesday.

"Let them abuse me in the print and electronic media. Let them implicate me in false cases. I am not budging," Bachchan said before leaving for a film shooting abroad.

He said nobody can force him to leave Mumbai or to change the course of his conscience.

Bachchan spoke emotionally on the attacks on his reputation and integrity, and on being labelled an outsider in a city where he spent a major portion of his life.

"I am not an outsider by any stretch of imagination. This land is my land as much as it is every other citizen of our beloved country. I came to Mumbai in 1968 to pursue a vocation. I did not need a visa to come here," Bachchan said.

Raj Thackeray targeted Bachchan two months back saying that the actor showed more interest in Uttar Pradesh, his home state, than Maharashtra, where he attained stardom.

Expressing his fondness for the city, Bachchan said: "I have made this city my home for the last 40 years. I bought my first car here and my own house. I married my wife in this city and both my children were born here. Both my children were married in the same city from the same house."

Besides MNS, Bachchan was also criticised by Samana, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, four days back.

The article had praised Tamil superstar Rajnikant , who had his early grooming in Karnataka, for his stand on the Hogenakkal issue and said it had "dwarfed" Bachchan when it came to taking a firm position on issues relating to Maharashtra.

Sena chief Bal Thackeray, however, distanced himself from the article, saying the views expressed in it were not his and that he had very high regards for Bachchan.

Bachchan said: "My two grandchildren were born in this city. My father and my mother spent their last years in Mumbai and died here. They were put to flames here and their ashes have mingled with the earth of this city."

Bachchan said this city had given him name and fame more than what he desired or hoped.

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