Big B most powerful star: Forbes

The charisma of the angry young man of yore, Amitabh Bachchan, continues to rule the hearts of the masses despite the emergence of many a Bollywood heart-throbs over the years.

Bachchan, whose popularity soared in the 1970s to rule over moviebuffs ever since, has been ranked at the top of India's most powerful film stars by the Forbes.com web site.

The web site poll endorses the undying status of the 58-year-old who was only last year crowned Star of the Millennium by the BBC.

The ageing star edged out the current Bollywood heart-throb Hrithik Roshan, who was ranked second, and many others who preceded the star of Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai.

Among the stellar Khans, only Aamir finds a place in the big league. He has been ranked third.

Interestingly, the 27-year-old former Miss World Aishwarya Rai was ranked fourth ahead of Madhuri Dixit.

The rankings are based on a proprietary formula that takes into account salary of the stars, number of press clips returned on Lexis-Nexis, and popularity gauged from searches on Dow Jones Interactive and Google.com.

The site acknowledges the pre-eminent position of India's film industry with over 800 films released every year. "These films are a staple throughout Asia but are relatively unknown in the United States," the site notes.

PTI