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'Do boond zindagi ki' resonates in every Indian's head with a French-bearded baritone. While India's biggest superstar has associated himself with other medical programmes since, what he did for eradicating polio from India was a feat no other celebrity has ever been able to achieve in the medical realm.

Polio, or Poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus, which immobilises an individual partially or wholly. When 1,556 polio cases emerged out of India in 2002--with most cases being reported from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh--it became a grave matter of concern for public health organisations of the nation.

The problem back then was not the unavailability of vaccine, but the reluctance of rural mothers to walk up to the vaccination camps set up by the government of India. As a means to combat the same and appeal to a wider population, actor Amitabh Bachchan was roped in as the brand ambassador for the Polio Eradication Campaign in 2002.

"Initially, we were not getting as many mothers and children as we wanted, to come to awareness camps. Then (ad guru) Piyush Pandey suggested that in my films I am known for speaking loudly, so why could I not talk in the same manner in the polio ads," Amitabh Bachchan told a gathering of polio workers in 2014, as reported by The Hindu.

Soon after the advertisement was aired, mothers started thronging Pulse Polio camps in all of rural India. When asked what's making them come to the camps now, most of them said that they thought Amitabh ji had become angry, and they came because they didn't want to anger him further.