Amitabh Bachchan has bravely fought many dacoits in his films, but there was one who the megastar was in awe of in real life – Daku Man Singh. “In my younger days, we were in awe of daku Man Singh, whose escapades and adventures were common conversation in and around every possible gathering,” Amitabh wrote on his blog. “As kids we would imagine the size and the massiveness of this person, and were made fearful of his sudden presence, if we did not go to bed at appointed hour or fussed about finishing our meals, or to be back home in time before dark,” he added. Recalling the fear, that people used to go through, the 69-year-old wrote: “In the summer months of Allahabad, when the sun would set and the lawn used to be watered to cool the ground, the family would sit out in the evenings, and as night came upon us, the elders would ask us to go to the house and put the lights on in the rooms.” “For us, it used to be a moment of extreme trauma, because even though the house was not more than 50 feet away from where we were sitting, the fear of the dark as you walked in, was numbing. We felt almost as though Man Singh would suddenly appear from behind one of the doors or grab us as we strode back to where the elders were sitting!” he added. Singh was among the dreaded dacoits of Chambal region and had 1,112 robberies and 185 murders to his credit between 1939 and 1955. He was shot dead in an encounter in 1955.
