Agencies 

Jul 23: Bollywood mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan , who is competing for roles with heroes up to 30 years younger than him, has no plans to hang up his boots as he does not want to ever face a financial crisis or feel insecure.

The Big B, seen most recently in Cheeni Kum as a man in his mid-60s romancing a woman half his age, explained why he would not consider retirement and why he would not return to politics in an interview.

"I have been through that phase before where I was in a financial crisis, and once you have been there you tend to feel insecure," said the star who will turn 65 in October.

"You want to make sure that you earn enough never to have to go through that again."

As long as audiences and producers wanted him to perform, Bachchan will appear on the silver screen that he has dominated for over three decades.

"I will continue to work as long as I can," he said. "I am thankful that I am still getting roles that are challenging. After all I am at least 20 to 30 years older than most of the heroes on stage."

More than two decades after his stint as a member of the Lok Sabha, Bachchan also said he was determined not to enter politics again.

"I am a failed politician. I was not good at it, and I have made it very clear that I will not enter (politics) again," Bachchan asserted.

"Back then, I entered politics on an emotional note," Bachchan said, apparently referring to his close association and friendship with late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, at whose behest he joined politics and contested the general election in 1984.

When it was pointed out that southern superstar Rajnikant had called him an "emperor of Indian cinema", Bachchan said the actor was "too generous to call me an emperor".

"I am no emperor. He has his place and I have my own place in the industry. It is a pity that people are trying to compare. Why can't we accept there are two personalities in the same industry?"

Bachchan, who burnt his fingers with the company he floated in 1996, was glad that the firm had finally made a turnaround.

"AB Corp (the company he floated) is now finally debt- free and this time at our annual general meeting, I was able to declare a small dividend and that made me very happy. We do have several productions lined up and we are looking forward to those," he said.

He has been to financial hell and back, but looking back on those days when he almost had to declare bankruptcy, Bachchan has but one regret – he trusted too much.

"Yes, I would say that when it came to AB Corp, I did put more trust than I should have in some of the managers and corporates who managed the business. We were in debt and advised to file for bankruptcy, but it was against my conscience to do so," Bachchan said.

However, when asked if it was a trait in him to place too much trust in others, Bachchan said: "I would not know. I cannot comment on myself."

Bachchan admitted there were times of "depression" when he realised that he owed money to many people, but what got him through was the conviction that he would not rest till he repaid all the debts of the company he set up in 1996.

"There were times when you feel down and out, but my conscience would not allow that we file for bankruptcy. We worked hard and repaid all our debts. In fact this year, at our annual general meeting I was able to declare a small dividend for our share-holders and that made me very happy," Bachchan said.

"Ours is a very small company, but nevertheless, we do have some plans and there are some productions in the offing," Bachchan said.

The firm went into administration and was declared a failed company by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in 1997, after declaring heavy losses. Bachchan had to work with a vengeance following the resumption of his acting career, after earlier announcing his retirement, to repay all his debts.

Dismissing criticism that Indian cinema aped the West, Bachchan said the country and its people had imbibed several things from the British, including the "police raj" that continued even though "we are an independent country".

"I don't think we (the Indian film industry) ape the West. Our parliamentary system is aped from the British...our laws, criminal procedure laws were all designed by the British and have remained unchanged," Bachchan said.

"We all know the British Raj was a police raj and even though we are now an independent country, we continue with the same."

"Indian cinema alone cannot be singled out for criticism. On the contrary, Indian cinema draws quite a lot from our culture, ethos and mythology while at the same time being inspired by the good art work done abroad," Bachchan said.

Stressing that Indian movies were only "inspired" by the West, Bachchan said: "If there is good work happening in the West, it is a very natural thing to get inspired by it.

"Our source and inspiration remain our ethics and our culture. After all, there are only seven notes of music, but when they are combined, they form different tunes. There has to be some kind of cohesion, balance and acceptance of what is happening in the West."

The mega superstar, however, was critical of those who expected Indian films to win Oscars, saying: "Why must we judge our films by Western standards? The number of people who watch Hindi films and love them point to the kind of popularity they have."

Bachchan himself is scheduled to work on two international projects – Deepa Mehta 's ‘Exclusion’ that centres round the plight of 376 Indian asylum-seekers who were denied entry to Canada in 1914 and Mira Nair 's ‘Shantaram’ which is based on Gregory David Roberts' acclaimed novel.