With their rugged good looks, strong protective presence and a charm that seems to ooze from the screen, Bollywood actors have had women from around the world swooning for decades

At 6 foot 2, with a deep baritone voice and intense stare, Bachchan became the "angry young man" of Bollywood in the 1970s - not easy at a time when directors were looking for fair, clean-cut heroes. His breakout role came in 1973's Zanjeer, a film unlike the romantic flicks of the period. He then went on to popularize a new breed of Hindi film hero in such major hits as spy thriller Deewar and spaghetti western Sholay. He took a break from the movies in the mid-eighties to get involved in politics and suffered a series of box office failures in the nineties - but he's been back with a vengeance since the early 2000s in roles as the family patriarch.