If one is not hugely mistaken, Amitabh Bachchan used to do a TV commercial for a prickly heat powder manufactured by Boro Plus, for which the actor was the brand ambassador. It seems the actor has been left a touch prickly since then.

Jokes apart, it is not every day that you find an actor of Bachchan’s stature and experience indicating to the world that he would initiate legal action against a police force.

Over what? For using his image in one of their advertisements.

For what? An anti-Naxal campaign in a Maoist insurgency-affected area of Bihar, urging the locals to shun the path of violence and exhorting the youth to join the forces.

Then what? Presumably angry at this brazen act of royalty violation, Bachchan tweeted: "Just read news about my photograph being used by Bihar Police .. This is illegal, no consent taken or given, lawyers in action now ..,"

Realising their slip-up, Kaimur police removed the posters. In a public apology, the district's superintendent of police, Umashankar Sudhanshu, was quoted by PTI saying, “We have removed the banner with Bachchan's poster from the only place in Adhaura block that it has been put up to educate the youths. I say sorry to Mr Bachchan for using his poster to motivate and educate the youths."

Admitting that the publicity material was used without the actor’s consent, Sudhanshu said the police were only using the actor’s name to educate the youths — in “purely in public interest”, and without any “commercial motive”.

While it is no one’s case that police and municipal authorities across the country should start using images of celebrities in “public interest”, is Bachchan’s retort, literally threatening legal action, warranted? Agreed, Kaimur police should have sought Bachchan’s prior “consent”, but a veteran actor — nay, a star, and with the prefix ‘super’ attached at that — should have better sense, right? Yes, it is illegal, and the Kaimur SP shouldn’t expect brownie points for the apology — in fact, he was legally, morally and ethically bound to issue one — but should not a veteran, a man deemed living legend and perceived as sensible, unlike many of his Bollywood colleagues, learn to be a little more tolerant, judicious, appreciative and concerned about issues that merit tolerance, judiciousness, comprehension and concern?

Couldn’t he simply have asked his lawyer to get the Kaimur cops to seek his permission, and then, may be, come out with a statement saying he would lend his name and image to the fight against Maoist terror, which is a bigger threat and kills more people each year in large swathes of land across at least seven or eight states than all external/external-infused aggression put together?

And what, pray, did Bachchan seek to achieve by going public about the fact that he has prompted lawyers to be “in action now”? Score brownie points? Come now, Mr Bachchan. Off your high horses. That tweet of yours sounded just about as mature, elegant and sharp-witted as a five-year-old’s rants against someone who has eaten her/his chocolates — wrongly, in violation of stipulated logic.

What next, then, Mr Bachchan? I just read that manufacturers and retailers in Jamshedpur are selling “Amitabh Bachchan atom bombs” (LINK) ahead of Diwali. If you read this, don’t forget your lawyer. And your Twitter handle.