PUNE, 13 November 2005 — The name of Amitabh Bachchan is byword in India and his popularity has reached global dimensions. And it is this popularity that has come to haunt him now.

With every aspect of his life dissected for public scrutiny, Amitabh’s recent claim that he is a poor farmer from Jaunpur has landed him in a bit of a spot.

The anchor of the popular TV show Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Hindi version of the popular English game show “Who Wants to Become a Millionaire” and the son of the famous Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh’s claim that he is a poor farmer from Jaunpur borders on the ridiculous.

This interesting information was revealed from the official documents of the district collector in Pune.

The Collector and Magistrate Prabhakar Deshmukh will decide on the “peasant” status of Amitabh while ruling over a land deal that involves the purchase of 20 acres of land near Pavana Dam in the Maval region of Pune Rural.

According to the documents Amitabh and his son Abhishek, who too is a Bollywood actor, have purchased this land from one Laxmikant Singhania.

The attached copy of the document shows that the father-son team are claiming to be poor farmers from Jaunpur.

According to the law, this deal violates the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Act of 1963, wherein only a farmer has the right to purchase agricultural land. The actor had attached an attested photocopy of their ownership of another agricultural land in Jaunpur while purchasing the land.

The collector has now asked Amitabh to produce original documents for finalizing the land purchase deal. The issue came to the notice of the collector through a national magazine which revealed details of the land deal. The collector since then has issued several notices to Amitabh to submit the documents.

Amitabh has failed to respond to the notices nor has be submitted the relevant documents.

The collector finally issued a final notice last week to Amitabh to submit the original document.

A source in the District Collectorate said that if Amitabh fails to produce these documents the names of both the father and son could be deleted from the official documents of the piece of land that they had purchased.

Farmers from nearby villages of Maval had demonstrated and objected to the land deal between Amitabh and Singhania, saying Amitabh is not a farmer.

The collector will decide if Amitabh loses his ownership over the piece of land or he joins the farmer community in Maharashtra.

Responding to the final notice. Amitabh finally sent a fax on Friday evening to the collector, requesting two weeks extension for submitting the original documents that will prove his status as a farmer from Jaunpur.

In the fax message, Amitabh has stated that the extension of time was required as the original documents were not ready.

An official of the collectorate said that if Amitabh fails to submit the original documents, then they will contact the authorities in Jaunpur to verify the facts.

In another development, Congress President Sonia Gandhi was miffed when she learned that Goa Chief Minister Pratap Singh Rane had extended an invitation to Amitabh to inaugurate the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in his state in February 2006.

An angry Sonia pulled up the Congress chief minister and reminded him that Amitabh was a leader and active supporter of the Samajwadi Party and the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The Goa chief minister is now in a fix as the star had already accepted the invitation. Rane is said to be in touch with senior Congress party leaders, asking them to tell Amitabh that the invitation to him stands canceled.