Quick question: how many Bollywood actors that you can remember on top of your head right now? Well, it is possible that one of them is Amitabh Bachchan and believe it or not, the legendary actor is now one of the celebrity voices that users can choose for Amazon Echo devices as well as Amazon’s Android app.
His addition to Amazon Alexa’s celebrity voice lineup was first announced back in September last year but the actual rollout only took place earlier this week. Other celebrities that Amazon has previously roped in as the alternative voice for Alexa includes Samuel L. Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Melissa McCarthy.
According to Amazon India, Alexa’s Amitabh Bachchan experience is curated by the actor himself. Among contents that users can invoke to be delivered in his signature baritone voice include stories from his life, inspirational quotes, jokes, and tongue twister.
Users can even ask Amitabh or Amit Ji, which is the wake alert that Amazon has set for the actor, to recite poems by his father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan who is one of the most celebrated poet in Hindi litreature. Amit Ji can also deliver weather updates or set alarms for Echo devices.
While the feature is able to support both Hindi and English on Echo devices, it is limited to English when it comes to Amazon’s Android app. At the same time, Amazon India also said that the feature can’t be used for shopping, skills, routines, factual questions and several more tasks.
At the same time, this feature is only available for users in India for the time being which is rather unfortunate for local fans of Amitabh Bachchan out there. Furthermore, it costs INR 299 (~RM17.04) to have one-year access to Amit Ji’s voice on Alexa although it is currently being offered at INR 149 (~RM8.49) as part of the launch.
(Source: Amazon India – [1][2].)
