MUMBAI: Octogenarian actor Dev Anand has hopped on board of the BBC’s editorial. The legendary Bollywood star has been made the guest editor of the BBC’s first Hindi internet magazine – BBC Patrika. He will hold this post for a period of three months and will work closely on it from Mumbai.

The 82-year-old actor turned director was quoted in a BBC report as saying that he was “pleasantly surprised” at the opportunity that had come his way. “I have always accepted challenges and I feel BBC Hindi Online has also been doing this all the time,” Anand was quoted as saying.

BBC Patrika features regional news coupled with original stories, poetry and interviews. The website will have a new guest editor every three months.

According to a media report, BBC Patrika has been launched with an aim to fill the void left by the closure of many Hindi literary magazines in India. BBC’s Hindi service head Achala Sharma was quoted as saying, “It has always been our endeavour to broaden the agenda of the site and BBC Hindi magazine perfectly fits into this vision. We are getting a very positive response from our users and it is very heartening to note that they feel that this gap is now being filled.”