A smiling Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood's biggest icon, Saturday left for home after 18 days' stay in Lilavati Hospital here for treatment of an abdominal ailment.

The 63-year-old mega star, clad in an impeccable milk-white kurta-pyjama and sandals and sporting a relieved smile, stepped out of the hospital in the western Mumbai suburb of Bandra at 11.15 a.m.

He was accompanied by his actor-son Abhishek, daughter Shweta, close friends Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, industrialists Subroto Roy and Anil Ambani - apart from armed bodyguards.

Bachchan made a gesture of thanks towards the media and well-wishers with folded hands before heading home in a white Range Rover, which was followed by a long convoy of private and police vehicles.

Though doctors had allowed him to go home three days back, the Bachchan family decided to wait for an auspicious date for his long-awaited homecoming.

The hospital premises had turned into a high security zone with hundreds of policemen and private security personnel cordoning off the area from the media and public - many of whom had been camping in the area for days together.

There were lots of speculations about where the actor would head as he owns two bungalows - "Pratiksha" and "Jalsa" - both located within a few hundred metres of each other in the western Mumbai suburb of Juhu.

Even as hundreds of his fans and media personnel waited for his glimpse outside "Jalsa", Amitabh reached Pratiksha at around 12 p.m. where his family members - wife and actress-parliamentarian Jaya, his mother and grandchildren waited for him.

Bachchan, who was operated upon for diverticulitis of the intestine, was first admitted to New Delhi's Escorts Heart Institute, where he was flown in from Dehra Dun after he first experienced pain.

The Bollywood icon was then brought to Mumbai and admitted to the Lilavati hospital Nov 28 and underwent a major abdominal surgery Nov 30.

Son of the legendary poet Harivanshrai Bachchan and Teji Bachchan, Amitabh's illness - the second major illness the actor has experienced in the past 23 years - had resulted in a groundswell of sympathy for the cine idol.

He came out of a coma following a life-threatening accident during the shooting of his film "Coolie" in 1982.