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Nov 28 . 08 - India's Bollywood film icon Amitabh Bachchan slept with a loaded gun under his pillow as militants attacked the city of Mumbai, he wrote in his blog.

Bachchan, a long-time resident of the city and arguably India's biggest superstar, said he was ashamed to reveal what he did as the "events of the terror attack unfolded" around him on Wednesday night and Thursday.

"Before retiring for the night, I pulled out my licensed .32 revolver, loaded it and put it under my pillow," Bachchan, 66, wrote in his blog (http://bigb.bigadda.com).

The actor said he spent the entire day watching in "anguish and in anger" as TV channels broadcast visuals of commandos battling holed-up militants at the Taj and Trident-Oberoi luxury hotels and a Jewish centre in the city.

A small group of men armed with assault rifles and grenades fanned out across the city on Wednesday night to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen, including the city's top two luxury hotels.

Mumbai, a city of 18 million, is the nerve-centre of India's growing economic might and home to the Bollywood film industry.

Bachchan has been writing his “Big B” blog since April, using the site to make his views public on films, the industry and the media’s portrayal of the actor and his family. The blog entries are frequently featured in the country’s newspapers in their movie and gossip columns. The blog is hosted by BigAdda.com, part of friend and billionaire Anil Ambani’s group of companies.

“The act of pulling out my revolver is a symbolic metaphor, a figure of speech, to demonstrate my complete loss in faith in the system and in the governance, in providing me - a citizen of India, with my rightful sense of security,” he said.

“It is to demonstrate that now I shall have to personally look after my family and myself and not depend on the state…that is just so miserably incapable of protecting its citizens,” the blog further read.

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