( CNN ) -- After 40 years of appearing on the silver screen , actor Amitabh Bachchan is the elder statesman of Indian cinema and is possibly the most recognized man in India . The Big B : The patriarch of Indian cinema has appeared in over 180 films . Born to a famous Indian poet , Bachchan made his screen debut at the age of 27 and has gone on to star in over 180 films . As such an established star he has seen Indian film making change over the years , weathered changing audience tastes and the evolution of Bollywood cinema . `` I 'm actually very happy with our content . Even though we were ridiculed , and the West were very cynical about the way we made our films and the content that it contained , '' he told CNN . `` But that very aspect has now become its USP ( unique selling point ) almost , and people love to see that . I would not want to change that . I would expect that this is how and what our cinema is all about . '' If Indian films have gained a new found international interest , the way that Indian films are produced has also changed . From the industry 's alleged connection to organized crime to better production quality , Bachchan has worked within the system and at the sharp end of making movies . `` We have our own modes of working and how does one actually decipher that the person that you 're working with has some kind of an underground link ? You know , ' I am mafia ' does n't come written on somebody 's forehead . `` Whether he , you know , collects his money from wherever it is ... is really not our concern . We are interested the story , the concept , in our roles , the director who 's going to be making it , in the creative aspect . That 's it , `` he said . The role that propelled him to superstardom was of a working class hero standing up to oppression and injustice in the 1975 film `` Sholay '' . `` During the 1970s there was a feeling of great dissatisfaction in the youth that the establishment of the system is not doing enough to take care of their issues and problems . When one individual stood out and challenged the system and came out victorious he suddenly became a hero , '' he told CNN . `` I fortunately happened to be the actor that they chose to represent that kind of philosophy or thinking . And therefore I became a beneficiary . '' From being the `` angry young man '' of cinema in India he is now more commonly known as `` The Big B '' to the media and his millions of fans . But being such a public figure has never been a problem ; Bachchan writes a daily blog and believes that it 's in an actor 's make-up to thrive in public attention and that stars should be able to deal with praise as well as criticism . `` I think we all live to be recognized ... creativity would be useless if no one ever saw it or recognized it . We want our work to be known . `` I enjoy my blog greatly because I invite comment . Not all of them are complimentary , many of them are abusive , but I never moderate it because I think it 's important to know what the rest of the world actually thinks about you . '' Taking the good with the bad , Bachchan was recently criticized for reportedly being less than impressed by Danny Boyle 's Oscar-winning film , `` Slumdog Millionaire . '' But says Bachchan the unnecessary controversy was because of comments from readers on his blog had been mistakenly attributed to him . `` I was wrongly accused . I did get to see the film . I thought it was a very well made film , great story , '' he told CNN . If `` Slumdog Millionaire '' illustrates current interest in Indian films by the West , Indian movies have also developed in ways more familiar to Hollywood movies . `` Life has become a lot faster . We 've had to move with the times and adjust . If you were to analyze an indie film of the 1970s ... there would be far , far less editing cuts of , say , a film that was released in 2009 . That philosophy [ from TV editing ] , for some peculiar reason , has now translated into the minds of the audiences and they expect the same kind of treatment when they go out to see a movie , '' he told CNN .
Indian actor has been part of Indian cinema for 40 years . Known as ' The Big B ' ; became icon to India after ' Tiger ' riots of 1975 . Blogs regularly and seen great changes in attitudes to Indian film and its influence . Created furore when mistakenly reported to have criticized ' The Millionaire '