And now Amitabh to read news on national television

Mumbai, Dec 30 (IANS) After playing Auro from "Paa" in a number of off-screen events, Amitabh Bachchan now assumes the role of media magnet Vijay Harshwardhan Mallik from his forthcoming movie "Rann" and will appear on a TV channel to do a year-end news round-up.

"And we aren't just talking about entertainment-related activities," said the film's co-producer Sheetal Talwar who was present when Big B donned the garb of a news anchor holding forth on events of the year from the world on the news channel Times Now.

"And it was events from the world of global politics. Mr. Bachchan just took over the television space as though he had done news analysis all his life. It was an amazing experience," Talwar told IANS.

On Wednesday night the megastar will reportedly be heard talking on roughly six global issues of 2009 - Indian national politics, terrorism, cricket, swine flu, recession and Obama on an hour-long segment.

This would be the first of several media-related activities that the Big B is scheduled to participate in before director Ram Gopal Varma's "Rann" hits the screens Jan 29.

Apparently he intends to assume whatever character he plays in his forthcoming films and promote the film as the character rather than 'Amitabh Bachchan'. Click the Movie button below for more info:
Rann