Fans celebrate release of film star

Fans and relatives of the Indian film star, Rajkumar, have been celebrating his release by bandits who held him hostage for three months.

He's expected to return to his hometown of Bangalore in the southern Indian state of Karnataka early on Thursday.

One of Rajkumar's daughters told the BBC her seventy-two-year-old father was well despite his ordeal.

He was freed by the bandit leader Veerappan even though one of the kidnapper's main demands -- the release of fifty of his jailed associates and the dropping of charges against seventy others -- was not met.

Indian officials said Veerappan, who's wanted for more than a hundred murders, released Rajkumar because of fears about the actor's health -- and a possible public backlash against his own Tamil community.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service