Amitabh Bachchan has no plans to quit

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who is competing for roles with heroes up to 30 years younger than him, has no plans to hang up his boots as he does not want to ever face a financial crisis or feel insecure.

The star, seen most recently in Cheeni Kum as a man in his mid-60s romancing a woman half his age, explained why he would not consider retirement and why he would not return to politics in an interview.

"I have been through that phase before where I was in a financial crisis, and once you have been there you tend to feel insecure," said the star who will turn 65 in October.

As long as audiences and producers wanted him to perform, Bachchan will appear on the silver screen that he has dominated for over three decades.

"I will continue to work as long as I can," he said. "I am thankful that I am still getting roles that are challenging. After all I am at least 20 to 30 years older than most of the heroes on stage."

More than two decades after his stint as a member of the Lok Sabha, Bachchan also said he was determined not to enter politics again.

"I am a failed politician. I was not good at it, and I have made it very clear that I will not enter (politics) again," he asserted. "Back then, I entered politics on an emotional note," Bachchan said, apparently referring to his close association and friendship with late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, at whose behest he joined politics and contested the general election in 1984.

Bachchan, who burnt his fingers with the company he floated in 1996, was glad that the firm had finally made a turnaround.

" AB Corp (the company he floated) is now finally debt- free and this time at our annual general meeting, I was able to declare a small dividend and that made me very happy. We do have several productions lined up and we are looking forward to those," he said.

Dismissing criticism that Indian cinema aped the West, Bachchan said the country and its people had imbibed several things from the British, including the "police raj" that continued even though "we are an independent country".

"I don't think we (the Indian film industry) ape the West. Our parliamentary system is aped from the British...our laws, criminal procedure laws were all designed by the British and have remained unchanged," he said. "We all know the British Raj was a police raj and even though we are now an independent country, we continue with the same."

The superstar, however, was critical of those who expected Indian films to win Oscars, saying: "Why must we judge our films by Western standards? The number of people who watch Hindi films and love them point to the kind of popularity they have."

Bachchan himself is scheduled to work on two international projects - director Deepa Mehta's Exclusion that centres round the plight of 376 Indian asylum-seekers who were denied entry to Canada in 1914 and director Mira Nair's Shantaram which is based on Gregory David Roberts' acclaimed novel.