Amitabh Bachchan: Bollywood actor becomes first Indian to hit 19 million followers on Twitter

Amitabh Bachchan has become the first Indian to have crossed 19 million followers on Twitter. The veteran Bollywood star has beaten India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has 17.5 million followers on the micro-blogging site.

Bachchan, so far, has 47,500 tweets and follows 996 Twitter accounts including that of Bill Clinton, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hanks and Hillary Clinton.

The superstar has also beaten his contemporaries Shahrukh Khan (17.5 million), Aamir Khan (16.2 million), Salman Khan (15.8 million) and Priyanka Chopra (12.5 million) on Twitter.

"In all the excitement of retweeting the 19 million on Twitter....Forgot the 34 years of ' Satte Pe Satta'," he tweeted.

Satte Pe Satta was an adaptation of the 1954 Hollywood film Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. Directed by Raj N Sippy, the film also starred Hema Malini, Amjad Khan, Ranjeeta Kaur and Sachin Pilgaonkar. Bachchan played a double role in the film.

Bachchan's Twitter account became active in May 2010. Since then, it has provided a platform for his fans to interact with the actor. Apart from Twitter, he constantly uses Facebook and his personal blog to engage with his fans.

In 2015, his account was hacked and it showed the star following some porn sites. There was little damage as he quickly unfollowed them and tweeted "WHOA !..My Twitter handle hacked ! Sex sites planted as 'following' ! Whoever did this, try someone else, buddy, I don't need this!"