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Amazon signs up Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan as new Alexa voice
- Fans of the film star can purchase the Amitabh Bachchan voice experience, as India’s half a billion smartphone users adopt voice-enabled internet services
- Amazon first used a celebrity voice with Hollywood star Samuel L Jackson, while rival Google Assistant added US singer John Legend’s voice
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Amazon.com has signed up Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan for its Alexa voice assistant, stealing a march over rivals Apple’s Siri and Alphabet’s Google Assistant as a country of 1.3 billion people adapts to voice-enabled internet services.
“The baritone that has enchanted the Indian film industry for over five decades, will soon deliver a unique voice experience to the many Indian customers who use Alexa,” Amazon announced on its India blog on Monday.
Users will be able to access “Mr Bachchan’s iconic voice on Alexa by purchasing the Amitabh Bachchan voice experience,” the blog said.
Bachchan, 77, is often described as India’s answer to Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro combined. He has featured in hundreds of commercials peddling everything from PepsiCo colas, Cadbury chocolates and even a Unicef-backed polio vaccination campaign.
Bachchan’s instantly recognisable voice has added to his star status in hit Bollywood movies, a podcast and the Indian version of the television game show Who wants to be a millionaire? In July he was hospitalised for Covid-19, while his actor son Abishek, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai and granddaughter were also infected.
On Monday, the actor posted on Instagram, “ek nayi soch … ek nayi drishti … ek nayi disha”, Hindi for “a new thinking, a new view, a new direction”.
Amazon first used a celebrity voice when Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson made a debut on Alexa. It has since added professional voice actors who recite Shakespeare, Mark Twain, proverbs and fables.
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