Amitabh Bachchan Tapped as New Voice for Amazon’s Alexa

MUMBAI, KOMPAS.com – Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has signed on to become the next voice of Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant starting next year.

He will be the first Indian celebrity to be featured on Alexa as the Silicon Valley giant expands its presence in India’s massive market.

The 77-year-old actor has been a household name in India for nearly half a century, and his deep baritone is instantly recognizable to listeners in the country of 1.3 billion.

International companies in the likes of Amazon have poured tens of billions of dollars in the Indian market in recent years as they fight for a piece of the South Asian giant’s fledgling digital economy.

Read also: ASEAN Ministers Agree to Improve Sustainability of Supply Chain, Digital Trade

In a blog post on Monday, Amazon India said Bachchan's "voice experience" feature will become available for purchase on Alexa next year.

"It will include popular offerings like jokes, weather, shayaris (poetry), motivational quotes, advice, and more," the firm said.

Alexa first rolled out celebrity voice option last year with actor Samuel L. Jackson, following a similar move by Google the year before, which gave users the option of hearing singer John Legend on the Google Assistant.

"I am excited to create this voice experience," the Bollywood megastar said on Amazon's blog.

"With voice technology, we are building something to engage more effectively with my audience and well-wishers."