Amitabh Bachchan becomes the first Indian voice of Amazon's Alexa

Indian cinema icon Amitabh Bachchan has become the first Indian to lend his voice to Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa. The US tech giant rolled out India’s first celebrity voice feature on Alexa with the nation’s biggest movie star Amitabh Bachchan as the company makes a push to lure more users in the world’s second-most populated nation.

Globally, users can trigger Alexa with a one-word wake alert (“Alexa”). But in the case of Bachchan, Amazon has introduced a two-word wake system to Alexa: “Amit ji” (where “ji” is a Hindi word to pay respect).

The company, which rolled out the voice of Samuel L. Jackson on Alexa in the U.S. in 2019, said users in India can add the Bollywood legend’s voice to their Echo devices or Amazon shopping app for an introductory price of 149 Indian rupees ($2) for the first year. (Starting the second year, the annual price will move to $4.)

The 78-year-old actor is providing Amazon with stories from his life, a selection of poems from his father, tongue twisters and motivational quotes. Amazon customers can also ask Alexa to play music, set alarms, get weather updates and get answers in Bachchan’s signature style.

“Working with Amazon to introduce my voice on Alexa was a new experience in bringing together the magic of voice technology and artistic creativity. I am excited that my well-wishers can now interact with me via this new medium, and looking forward to hear how they feel about this,” said Bachchan in a statement.

“At Amazon and Alexa, we consistently innovate on behalf of our customers and building the Amitabh Bachchan celebrity voice experience with one of India’s most iconic voices has been a labor of love,” said Puneesh Kumar, country leader for Alexa, Amazon India, in a statement.