Amitabh Harivansh Bachchan was born on 11 October 1942 is an Indian film actor. He was born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh and hails from a Hindu Kayastha family. His father Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan was a well known Hindi poet, while his mother, Teji Bachchan was a Sikh-Punjabi from Faisalbad (now in Pakistan). Bachchan was initially named as Inquilaab, inspired from the famous phrase Inquilaab Zindabad, during the Indian independence struggle. However, at the suggestion of fellow poet Sumitranandan Pant, Harivansh changed the name to Amitabh which means the light that would never go off.
Amitabh Bachchan is the eldest of Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s two sons. His mother had a keen interest in the theatre and had been offered a role in the film, but preferred her domestic duties. Amitabh Bachchan did his initial schooling in Allahabad’s Jnana Prabodhini and Boy’s High School (BHS), followed by Nainital’s Sherwood College, where he specialized in the field of art. He later went on to study at Kirori Mal College of the University of Delhi and completed a Bachelor of Science Degree. In his twenties, Amitabh Bachchan gave up the job as freight broker for the shipping firm, Bird and Co., to pursue a career in acting.
Amitabh Bachchan film career
Amitabh Bachchan made his film debut in the year 1969 as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen’s National Award winning film Bhuvan Shome. Thereafter he got his first acting role in Saat Hindustani. Though the film was not a financial success, Amitabh Bachchan won National Film Award for the Best Newcomer. Later in the year 1971, he was seen casting a role in the movie Anand, alongside Rajesh Khanna, where he played the role of a doctor, which won him the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. During the tenure from 1973-1983 he was bagged with a number of movies in hand, many of which were huge blockbusters as well. Thus he had made his own stand in the Bollywood within a very short span.
In 1984, Amitabh Bachchan gave a try in the politics also. He took a break from the acting career and entered the field of politics in support of his friend, Rajiv Gandhi. He contested Allahabad’s seat of the 8th Lok Sabha against H.N Bahuguna, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and won by one of the highest victory margins in general election history. His political career was however short-lived, he resigned after three years, calling politics as a cesspool. The resignation followed Amitabh Bachchan and his brother being involved in some scam by newspaper, which he vowed to take to court. Amitabh Bachchan was eventually found not guilty of involvement in the ordeal. Amitabh Bachchan is married to actress Jaya Bhaduri and is blessed with two children, Shweta Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan. Abhishek is also an actor and is married to actress Aishwarya Rai.
Amitabh Bachchan's old friend, Amar Singh, helped him during financial crisis due to the failure of his production company ABCL. Therefore Amitabh Bachchan started to support his political party, the Samajwadi Party. Later Jaya Bachchan joined the Samajwadi Party and became a Raj Sabha member. Bachchan continued to do favors for the Samajwadi Party, including advertisements and campaigns, which again got him into various troubles in the Indian courts for falsely after a previous incident of submission of legal papers by him, stating him as a farmer.
A 15 year press ban against Amitabh Bachchan was imposed during his peak acting years by Stardust and some of the other film magazines. In his own defense, Bachchan claimed to have banned the press from entering his sets until late 1989.
Amitabh Bachchan also entered into the field of production in the year 1996 by setting up a production company named ABCL, but it did not make any remarks and rather Amitabh Bachchan had to face a huge financial crisis due to the heavy loss from the closing of ABCL Company. The Bombay High Court in 1999, restrained Bachchan from selling off his Bombay bungalow ‘Prateeksha’ and two flats till the pending loan recovery cases of Canara Bank were disposed off. Bachchan had, however pleaded that he had mortgaged his bungalow to Sahara India Finance for raising funds for his company.
Later in the year 2000, Amitabh Bachchan stepped up to host India’s adaptation of the British television game show, titled Kaun Banega Crorepati. The program turned a big success and Canara Bank withdrew its lawsuit against Bachchan in 2000. Amitabh Bachchan hosted KBC till 2005, and its success set the stage for him to return to Bollywood.
Amitabh Bachchan has won numerous major awards in his career, including four National Film Awards, three of which are in the Best Actor category, and fourteen Filmfare Awards. Amitabh Bachchan is the most nominated performer in any major acting category at Filmfare, with 36 nominations overall. In addition to working, he has worked as playback singer, film producer and television presenter and was an elected member of the Parliament from 1984 to 1987.
