The biggest attraction in India for Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation isn’t Tobey or Leo—it’s Amitabh Bachchan, a Bollywood megastar whose near-death experience inspired countrywide praying. Sujay Kumar looks at Bachchan’s career—and whether his Hollywood turn will make him an American name.

Amitabh Bachchan is a tall Indian film legend. In Baz Luhrmann’s bloated The Great Gatsby he plays Meyer Wolfshiem, a “small flat-nosed Jew.” In the words of Daisy Buchanan, “Bachchan? What Bachchan?”

Bachchan (pronounced “Bach-an”) isn’t fooling anyone. In his roughly seven minutes on screen (which begin with a bombastic “My boy!”), the Bollywood star looks like an Indian man, and his accent slithers out when pronouncing things like “discov-ahd.”

All of this isn’t really of great consequence, since the actor’s not meant to be a literal—or historically accurate—translation of F. Scott Fiztgerald’s character, a shady gambler who fixed the 1919 World Series. Instead, Bachchan’s here because he’s “the Big B,” Bollywood’s most cherished grandfather. (His wife, son, and daughter-in-law are all A-listers in the industry.) Bachchan and Lurhmann are friends, and the director wanted to avoid drawing Wolfsheim in an “anti-Semitic manner” like in the book.

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