Prashanth Venkataraman

Background

Born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, Amitabh Bachchan 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 from Karachi-Pakistan^. Bachchan was initially named as Inquilab, inspired from the phrase Inquilab Zindabad, during the Indian independence struggle. He was re-christened Amitabh which means, the light that would never go off. Though his last-name was Srivastava, his father had adopted the pen-name Bachchan, under which was published all his works. It is with this last name that Amitabh debuted in films, and, for all public purposes, it has become the surname of all members of his current family.

Born in the middle of World War II, Amitabh is the elder of Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s two sons, the second being Ajitabh. Even today, Bachchan emphasizes that he can never be the man his father was. His mother was very fond of stage and was also offered a role in a film, but she preferred to become a quintessential homemaker. She was reasonably responsible for Amitabh’s career because she always wanted him to take the centre stage. Bachchan’s father passed away in 2003, and his mother—on December 21, 2007.

Bachchan has a double M.A. (Master of Arts) degree. He attended Allahabad’s Jnana Prabodhini and Boys’ High School (BHS), followed by Nainital’s Sherwood College, where he majored in the art stream. 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, Bachchan gave up a job as freight broker for the shipping firm, Bird and Co., based in Calcutta, to pursue a career in acting.

He married actress Jaya Bhaduri on June 3, 1973 according to Bengali rites. The couple have two children: daughter Shweta and son Abhishek.

Career

1969-1983

Bachchan made his film debut in 1969 as one of the seven protagonists in Saat Hindustani. The movie was not a financial success but Bachchan won his first National Film Award for Best Newcomer. The critically acclaimed and commercially successful Anand (1970) followed, where he starred alongside Rajesh Khanna who was the leading popular actor at the time. Bachchan held his own despite playing a supporting role, and won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance.

Anand was followed by many unsuccessful films such as Reshma Aur Shera (1971) and Parwaana (1971). In 1972 he had a hit with the multi-star road comedy Bombay to Goa. Then came 1973 and the start of the road towards the status he would eventually come to hold.

Bachchan’s first solo film to achieve box office success came when director Prakash Mehra cast him in the leading role for his film Zanjeer (1973). The movie was a sharp contrast to the romantically themed films that had generally preceded it and established Amitabh in a new persona – the “angry young man” action hero of Bollywood. The next decade catapulted him to the pinnacle of Bollywood superstardom. He churned out at least one major hit every year, including Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975) Trishul (1978), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Don (1978), Kasme Vaade (1978), Kaala Patthar (1979), Mr. Natwarlal (1979), Ram Balram (1980), Shaan (1980), Lawaaris (1981), and Shakti (1982). In fact, in 1978, the top four grossing films of India starred Amitabh Bachchan . On account of this unprecedented run and stature he enjoyed, he was billed a “one-man industry” by the French director Francois Truffaut.

Although the above-mentioned films cemented his status as Bollywood’s pre-eminent action hero, Amitabh displayed a flair for more than just action roles. His remarkable comic timing was on display in such hits as Chupke Chupke (1975), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Namak Halaal (1982). He was also successful as a romantic lead, with particularly notable performances in Kabhie Kabhie (1976) and Silsila (1981). In 1982 he nearly fatally injured his intestines while filming Coolie. His accident received wider world coverage and hit the headlines in the UK something unheard of at the time and many Indians prayed in temples or offered to sacrifice their own limbs to save him. Nevertheless he spent many months recovering and resumed filming later that year after a long period of recuperation. The film was released in 1983 and due to the huge publicity of Bachchan’s accident the film was a box office success.

Political career: 1984-1987

In 1984, Amitabh took a break from acting and briefly entered politics in support of long-time family friend Rajiv Gandhi. He contested Allahabad’s Parliament seat against H. N. Bahuguna, a well-known politician, and won his MP candidacy by the highest victory margin ever for a parliamentary candidate in Indian history (68.2% of the vote). His political career, however, was short-lived: He resigned after three years, leaving his term incomplete. The resignation followed Bachchan’s implication and that of his brother in the ‘Bofors scandal‘ by a newspaper which he vowed to take to court. Bachchan was eventually found not to be guilty of involvement in the ordeal. His old friend Amar Singh helped him during a financial crisis due to the failure of his company ABCL. Therefore Bachchan started to support Amar Singh’s political party, the Samajwadi party. Jaya Bachchan joined Samajwadi Party and became a Rajya Sabha Member. Bachchan has continued to do favors for the Samajwadi party, including advertisements and political campaigns. These activities have recently gotten him into trouble again in the Indian courts for false claims after a previous fiasco of submission of legal papers by him stating that he is a farmer.

The 15-year press ban

Very few are aware of the somewhat self-imposed press ban on Bachchan. Stardust and some the film magazines got together to form an association that banned Bachchan for 15 years during his peak. They decided not to print anything about Bachchan in any of their publications. Bachchan had said that he had banned the press from entering his sets almost till the end of 1989. However, he had nothing personal against any particular magazine. It has been said that Bachchan had banned certain publications because he disliked what was being published about him and as such he vetoed them in an attempt to get them to conform this.

Slump and retirement: 1988-1992

In 1988, Bachchan returned to films after a three year stint in politics and played the title role in Shahenshah, which was a box office success due to the hype of Bachchan’s comeback. After the success of his comeback film however, his star power began to wane as all of his subsequent films failed at the box office. The 1991 hit film Hum looked like it might reverse this trend, but the momentum was short-lived as his string of box office failures continued. Notably, despite the lack of hits, it was during this period that Bachchan won his second National Film Award, for his memorable performance as a Mafia don in the 1990 film Agneepath. These years would be the last he would be seen on screen for some time. After the release of Khuda Gawah in 1992, Bachchan went into semi-retirement for five years. In 1994 one of his delayed films Insaniyat was released but was also a box office failure.

Career as a producer and acting comeback 1996-1999

Bachchan turned producer during his temporary retirement period and setup Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd. (A.B.C.L.) in 1996 with the vision of becoming a 10 billion rupees (approx 250 million $US) India’s premier entertainment company by the year 2000. ABCL’s strategy was to introduce products and services covering the entire section of the India’s entertainment industry. Its operations were mainstream commercial film production and distribution, audio cassettes and video discs, production and marketing of television software, celebrity and event management. Soon after the company was launched in 1996, the first film produced by the company was Tere Mere Sapne which failed to do well at the box office but launched the careers of actors such as Arshad Warsi and South films superstar Simran. ABCL produced a few other films none of which did well.

In 1997, Bachchan attempted to make his acting comeback with the film Mrityudaata, produced by ABCL. Though Mrityudaata attempted to reprise Bachchan’s earlier success as an action hero, like most of ABCL ventures, the film was a failure both financially and critically. ABCL was the main sponsor of the The 1996 Miss World beauty pageant, Bangalore and lost millions due to the poor management of the event. The fiasco and the consequent legal battles surrounding ABCL and various entities after the event, coupled with the fact that ABCL was reported to have overpaid most of its top level managers, eventually led to its financial and operational collapse in 1997. The company went into administration and was later on declared as a failed company by Indian Industries board. The Bombay high court, in April 1999 restrained Bachchan from selling off his Bombay bungalow ‘Prateeksha’ and two flats till the pending loan recovery cases of Canara Bank were disposed of. Bachchan had, however, pleaded that he had mortgaged his bungalow to Sahara India Finance for raising funds for his company.

Bachchan later attempted to revive his acting career and had average success with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998) and received positive reviews for Sooryavansham (1999) but most, however, then believed that Bachchan’s glory days were over as all his other films such as Lal Baadshah (1999) and Hindustan Ki Kasam (1999) were box office failures.

Television career

In the year 2000, Bachchan stepped up to host India’s adaptation of the British television game-show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? entitled, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC). As it did in most other countries where it was adopted, the program found immediate and profound success, in no small part due to Bachchan’s charisma. It is believed that Bachchan charged a whopping Rs 25 lakhs (2.5 million Indian Rupees, approximately US$60,000 ) per weekly episode which strengthened Bachchan and his family both financially and morally after the setbacks that he had to cope after ABCL’s collapse. The Canara Bank also withdrew its law suit against Bachchan in November 2000. Bachchan hosted KBC till November 2005, and its success set the stage for his return to film popularity.

Return to prominence: 2000-present

In 2000, Amitabh Bachchan regained his prominence when he appeared in Yash Chopra’s box-office super hit, Mohabbatein directed by Aditya Chopra, in which he played a stern, older figure that rivalled the character of India’s current heartthrob, Shahrukh Khan. Audiences appreciated Bachchan’s work, as he played a character whose age approximately mirrored his own and also because his character in the movie very much matched his pre-established image of angry-(no-longer)young-man. Other hits followed, with Bachchan appearing as an older family patriarch in Ek Rishtaa: The Bond of Love (2001), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) and Baghban (2003). As an actor, he continued to exploit a range of characters suiting with his profile, receiving critical acclaim for his performances in Aks (2001), Aankhen (2002), Khakee (2004), Dev (2004) and Black (2005). Taking advantage of this resurgence, Amitabh started endorsing a variety of products and services, appearing in many television and billboard advertisements. In 2005 and 2006 he starred with his son Abhishek in the hit films Bunty Aur Babli (2005), the Godfather tribute Sarkar (2005), and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (2006). All of them have been very successful at the box office.^[20][21] His later releases in 2006 and early 2007: Baabul (2006), Eklavya and Nishabd (2007) failed to do well at the box office but his performances in each of them have been appreciated by critics. He also made a guest-appearance as himself in the Kannada movie Amruthadaare directed by Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar.

On May 25, 2007 two of his films Cheeni Kum and the multi-starrer Shootout at Lokhandwala were released. Shootout at Lokhandwala did very well at the box office and was declared a hit in India and Cheeni Kum picked up after a slow start and has been declared an overall average hit.

On 31 August 2007, a remake of his biggest hit Sholay (1975) which was titled Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag released and had him play the role of the villain Babban Singh (originally Gabbar Singh) who was played by the late actor Amjad Khan in the 1975 original. The film proved to be a disaster at the box office and was also poorly received by critics.

His first English language film Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2007. He received positive reviews from critics who hailed his performance as his best ever since Black.

Bachchan is also going to play a supporting role in his first international film titled Shantaram which is directed by Mira Nair and stars Hollywood actor Johnny Depp in the lead.

His upcoming releases for 2008 include Sarkar Raj, a sequel to Sarkar and Bhootnath.

Health

1982 injury during filming Coolie

While filming Coolie in 1982, Bachchan was seriously injured during the filming of a fight scene with co-actor Puneet Issar. He was in the hospital with a ruptured intestine for months, and at times was close to death. A remarkable outpouring of support and concern by his fans and the nation in general followed. After recovering, Bachchan resumed shooting for Coolie, and it finally released as a huge success owing to its pre-release publicity.

The director, Manmohan Desai altered the ending for Coolie after Bachchan’s accident. Bachchan’s character was originally intended to have been killed off but after the change of script, the character lived in the end. It would have been inappropriate, said Desai, for the man who had just fended off death in real life to be killed on screen. Also, in the released film the footage of the fight scene is frozen at the critical moment, and a caption appears onscreen marking this as the instant of the actor’s injury and the ensuing publicity of the accident. While filming an action scene, Bachchan was doing his own stunts. He had to fall onto a table and then on the ground. But when he jumped towards the table, the corner of the table hit his abdomen. He had a splenic rupture and lost a large amount of blood. He was flown out and needed urgent operation (splenectomy) and was critically ill for a while. A rumor spread that he had died from the accident. The nation mourned. Later there were mile-long queues of well-wishing fans outside the hospital where he was recuperating.

Illness

Later, he was struck with an illness called Myasthenia gravis. This happened either because of the heavy medication that he took during his Coolie accident or because of the blood transfusion that he had received. This illness made him feel weak both mentally and physically and he decided to quit films. He had become very pessimistic about everything and just couldn’t handle the pressure of a new film’s release every Friday. Before every release he would say, “Yeh film to flop hogi!” (”This film will flop”).

2005 Hospitalisation

In November 2005, Amitabh Bachchan was admitted to Lilavati Hospital’s ICU once more, to undergo surgery for diverticulitis of the small intestine. This occurred after Bachchan complained of pains in his abdomen some days prior. During the period and that following his recovery, most of his projects were put on hold, including the television show he was in the process of hosting, Kaun Banega Crorepati. India also appeared to come to a standstill, with celebrity after celebrity visiting him to offer well-wishes and prayers. News of the incident saturated coverage across Newspapers and TV news channels. Amitabh returned to work in March 2006.

Voice

Bachchan is known for his deep, baritone voice. He has been a narrator, a playback singer and presenter for numerous programmes. Renowned film director Satyajit Ray was so impressed with Bachchan’s voice, that he decided to use his voice as commentary in Shatranj Ke Khiladi since he did not find any suitable role for him. Before entering the film industry, Bachchan applied for a job with All India Radio for the post of a news announcer.

Controversies and Criticism

Barabanki Land Scam

In the runup to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, 2007, Amitabh Bachchan made a film extolling the virtues of the Mulayam Singh government. His Samajwadi Party was routed, and Mayawati came to power. On June 2, 2007, a Faizabad court ruled that he had illegally acquired agricultural land designated specifically for landless Dalit farmers. He may also be investigated on related charges of forgery. As he has allegedly claimed he was a farmer. If he does not qualify as the owner of agricultural land elsewhere, he may also lose a 20 acre farmhouse property he had purchased at Maval near Pune.^[36] On July 19, 2007, after the scandal broke out, Bachchan surrendered the land acquired in Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh and Pune. He wrote to the chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, to donate away the lands illegally acquired by him and his son Abhishek. In Barabanki and Pune. However, the Lucknow Court has put a stay on the land donation and said that the status quo on the land be maintained.

On October 12, 2007, Bachchan abandoned his claim in respect of the land at Daulatpur village in Barabanki district. On December 11, 2007, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court gave a clean chit to Bachchan in a case pertaining to alleged fraudulent allotment of government land to him in Barabanki district. Giving a clean chit to Bachchan, a single Lucknow bench of Justice said there was no finding that the actor “himself committed any fraud or manipulated any surreptitious entry in the revenue records”.

Filmography

Actor