Bachchan's long battle with TB

Sixteen years ago, Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan made a comeback in showbiz—albeit on the small screen – with the immensely popular TV game show “Kaun Banega Crorepati”. But for him, it was also a time of immense pain as he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in the spine and had to pop in 8-10 painkillers a day.

The superstar revealed this to an audience here at a programme on the occasion of World TB Day on Monday night saying he was diagnosed with the disease on the day he started shooting for “KBC”.

 “In 2000, I was detected with TB and went through a very rigorous treatment for almost a year. I contracted TB on the day I was going to start TV show KBC. It was a TB of spine. It's very uncomfortable. You cannot sit or lie down. Most of the time, I was on 8-10 pain killers a day just to survive the period when I was anchoring the game show,” the megastar said as he joined US Ambassador to India Richard R Verma, civil society and health workers for a reception ahead of World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.“I am a tuberculosis survivor” and that is why “I took up” the cause of spreading awareness about the disease,” said the actor who is Indian government's brand ambassador of the campaign against TB.

The Big B said “many people ask me why I contribute my services to a medical cause. I have had a complicated medical history. One of the reasons I took up TB is because I am a TB survivor.”

 He said that with treatment for a year, he became free of the disease. “The reason I disclosed is that I felt that the word survivor is somehow is a very powerful word. When I say I am TB survivor, it seems like I survived a plane crash or boat sinking. If you survive that, it lends a lot of power and strength to what you are saying deeper. It's like saying that I have survived it because I went through a process,” he said.

“...I said let me go there and say I am a TB survivor and I play with my grand-children and lead a normal life. It cannot get transferred. There are precautions, of course,” he said.

Bachchan, said TB is normally associated with people who live with lesser means but everybody is “vulnerable” to the disease.

“It seems a little arrogant and immodest to say but what I really want to say is that if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. It's not trying to place degree among people. It's just trying to say that anyone can contract TB. If it is not detected in time, it can become grave. I had the medical help and guidance to get it detected and if I am sitting here as healthy, it was partly because we were able to detect the disease in time,” he said.