The new millennium saw younger directors portraying Amitabh intelligently, interestingly.

There were those who cast him as the strict patriarch -- Aditya Chopra's Mohabbatein, Karan Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and Suneel Darshan's'Ek Rishtaa -- The Bond of Love.

Some directors did not shy away from painting more than a few negative shades to Bachchan's characters -- the cop possessed by an evil spirit in Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's Aks, the schizophrenic masterminding a bank robbery in Vipul Amrutlal Shah's Aankhen.

Amitabh also reverted to type, playing funny guy in David Dhawan's Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan and Hum Kisise Kum Nahin.

Thirty of these last 60 years have been spent in the screen trade, but Amitabh Bachchan still considers himself a director's actor. One of India's well-known advertising film-makers Prahlad Kakkar says it best: Amitabh Bachchan, the biggest superstar India has known, takes instructions from anyone.