Bollywood film star Amitabh Bachchan has been hailed as a hero after clearing 40 million rupees (£438,000) worth of loans taken out by almost 1,400 farmers in his home state in northern India.

An ongoing agricultural crisis has seen India's farmers hit hard by a drop in commodity prices, stagnant wages, record fuel prices and high fertiliser costs.

Bachchan, one of Indian cinema's most revered actors, wrote in his blog this week that he had helped 1,398 farmers from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and felt a 'sense of accomplishment'.

'Gratitude leans across to the desire of removing some of the burdens that farmers continue to suffer... and the inner peace it generates when the desired is completed,' he wrote.