LONDON: Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, fondly known as ‘Big B', was evacuated from a hotel in London Monday following what police said was a suspected bomb explosion. A tweet from Bachchan said “Emergency in my hotel in London. Everyone evacuated out on the street in biting cold. Suspecting explosion in next door. Managed to get into a car and driving away from site of emergency. Police not allowing anyone near.” The tweet came as controversy surrounds Bachchan's cold war with the International Indian Film Academy, the organizer of the annual IIFA awards which has decided to do away with the post of brand ambassador, a position Bachchan occupied for a decade.Tweeting from London a day and a half before the IIFA holds a news conference in Toronto, where the next IIFA is to be held, Bachchan wrote: “We are not coming to IIFA... IIFA said our services are not required!!” He added: “It's not me... it's the organizers of IIFA that do not want me in Toronto... Sri Lanka was the same.”The Canadian city of Toronto is the scheduled venue for this year's IIFA awards, slated from June 23 to June 25, 2011. A source in Wizcraft, the company behind the IIFA, said the battle lines had been drawn when Bachchan refused to participate in last year's awards ceremony, held in Colombo, thus failing to honor his contract as brand ambassador. The annual IIFA event had always been a showcase for the Bachchan family since the superstar officially became its brand ambassador.
