Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan claims he is the "top" tax payer in the country with Rs.15.59 crore (Rs.155.9 million), and with Aishwarya Rai joining the family, the Bachchan family's total tax would be around Rs.25.3 crore (Rs.253 million). He was reacting to a newspaper report that said Hrithik Roshan was the highest tax payer with Rs.15.10 crore (Rs.151 million) for 2006-2007 and Shah Rukh paid Rs.14 crore (Rs.140 million) tax.

"I'm surprised by the report and I've serious doubts about its authenticity. Because my name isn't mentioned anywhere among the top most taxpayers of the entertainment business. This gives the utterly false impression that I make pots of money and don't pay up enough taxes," Amitabh told IANS.

Clarifying that he tops among the tax-payers of the country, the Big B said: "If you look at the figures for the year 2006-2007, you'll see Amitabh, that's yours truly, has paid Rs.14.15 crore and from our company AB Corp Ltd. where all the earnings are mine, we've paid Rs.1.44 crore."

"Abhishek Bachchan has paid Rs.4.75 crore. And now that Aishwarya Rai is a part of the family, approximately Rs.5 crore tax money has come from her. This makes it a total of Rs.25.3 crore (Rs.253 million). "

"And yet they've put Hrithik as the top most taxpayer! Even if you take my tax figures individually I still top."