Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema. With a cinematic career spanning over five decades, he has played in over 200 films. Bachchan has been called as the Shahenshah of Bollywood, Sadi ke Mahanayak, Bollywood's Star of the Millennium, or simply Big B. His dominance in the Indian film industry during the 1970s–80s led the French director François Truffaut to describe it as a "one-man industry". He is a recipient of several accolades including six National Film Awards and sixteen Filmfare Awards.
Bachchan was born in Allahabad, and he was educated at Sherwood College, Nainital, Uttarakhand and Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi. His film career started in 1969 as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen's film Bhuvan Shome, followed by work in early films such as Anand and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan. He achieved greater stardom in later years; beginning with Zanjeer, Deewaar, and Sholay that he embodied the "angry young man" in their Hindi films of the 1970s-1980s, He consistently starred in the highest grossings of the year, includes Kabhi Kabhie, Hera Pheri, Amar Akbar Anthony, Don, Trishul, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Kaala Patthar, Dostana, Laawaris , Coolie and Mard. Bachchan was voted the "greatest star of stage or screen" in the BBC Your Millennium online users poll in 1999. In October 2003, Time magazine said he is the undisputed godfather of Bollywood.
After taking a break from acting in the 1990s, his resurgence was marked in 2000 with Mohabbatein. Since then he starred in several successful and acclaimed films like Baghban, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Black, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Sarkar, Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva, and Kalki 2898 AD. For Agneepath, Black, Paa and Piku; he has won four National Film Award for Best Actor, making him the only actor to do so. Bachchan also made an appearance in a Hollywood film, The Great Gatsby, in which he played a non-Indian Jewish character.
Bachchan has won numerous accolades in his career, including record four National Film Awards in Best Actor category and many awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies. He has won sixteen Filmfare Awards and is the most nominated performer in any major acting category at Filmfare with 34 nominations in Best Actor and 42 nominations overall. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1984, the Padma Bhushan in 2001, the Padma Vibhushan in 2015, and India's highest award in the field of cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2018 for his contributions to the arts. The Government of France honoured him with its highest civilian honour, Officer of the Legion of Honour, in 2007 for his exceptional career in the world of cinema and beyond.
In addition to acting, Bachchan has worked as a playback singer, film producer, and television presenter. He has hosted several seasons of the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, India's version of the game show franchise, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. He also entered politics for a time in the 1980s. Bachchan has also been involved in several humanitarian works and he is a brand endorser in India. Beyond the Indian subcontinent, he acquired a large overseas following of the South Asian diaspora, as well as others, in markets including Africa, the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Russia, Central Asia, the Caribbean, Oceania, Canada and the United States.
Early life and family
Bachchan was born on 11 October 1942 in Allahabad to Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and social activist Teji Bachchan. Harivansh Rai Bachchan was an Awadhi Hindu Kayastha, who was fluent in Awadhi, Hindi and Urdu. Harivansh's ancestors came from a village called Babupatti, in the Raniganj tehsil, in the Pratapgarh district, in the present-day state of Uttar Pradesh, in India. Teji Bachchan was a Punjabi Sikh Khatri from Lyallpur, Punjab, British India. Bachchan has a younger brother, Ajitabh, who is five years younger than him.Bachchan's parents were initially going to name him Inquilaab, inspired by the phrase Inquilab Zindabad popularly used during the Indian independence struggle; the name Amitabh was suggested to his father by poet Sumitranandan Pant. Although his surname was Srivastava, Amitabh's father, who opposed the caste system, had adopted the pen name Bachchan, under which he published all of his works. When his father was looking to get him admitted to a school, he and Bachchan's mother decided the family's name should be Bachchan instead of Shrivastava. It is with this last name that Amitabh debuted in films and used for all other practical purposes, Bachchan has become the surname for all of his immediate family. Bachchan's father died in 2003, and his mother in 2007.
Bachchan's secondary education was at Boys' High School & College in Allahabad and Sherwood College in Nainital. He attended Kirori Mal College at the University of Delhi in Delhi. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Kirori Mal College in 1962. When Bachchan finished his studies, his father approached Prithviraj Kapoor, the founder of Prithvi Theatre and patriarch of the Kapoor acting family, to see if there was an opening for him, but Kapoor offered no encouragement. Bachchan was a friend of Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, before he became an actor. He used to spend time with them when he was a resident in New Delhi. Bachchan's family were very close to the Nehru-Gandhi family of politicians. When Sonia Gandhi first came to India from Italy before her marriage, Bachchan had received her at the Palam International Airport on 13 January 1968. She spent 48 days at Bachchan's house with his parents before her wedding to Rajiv.
In the late 1960s, Bachchan applied to be a newsreader for All India Radio in Delhi, but "failed the audition". He became a business executive for Bird & Company in Kolkata, and worked in theatre before starting his film career. It is thought that his mother might have had some influence on his choice of career, for she always insisted that he should "take centre stage".
Acting career
Early career (1969–1972)
Bachchan made his film debut in 1969, as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen's National Award–winning film Bhuvan Shome. His first acting role was as one of the seven protagonists in the film Saat Hindustani, directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and featuring Utpal Dutt, Anwar Ali, Madhu and Jalal Agha. Anand followed, in which Bachchan starred alongside Rajesh Khanna. His role as a doctor with a cynical view of life garnered Bachchan his first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. He then played his first antagonist role as an infatuated lover-turned-murderer in Parwana. Following Parwana were several films, including Sunil Dutt's Reshma Aur Shera where he played a mute character. During this time, he made a guest appearance in the film Guddi which starred his future wife Jaya Bhaduri. He narrated part of the film Bawarchi. In 1972, he made an appearance in the road action comedy Bombay to Goa directed by S. Ramanathan which was moderately successful. Many of Bachchan's films during this early period did not do well. His only film with Mala Sinha, Sanjog was also a box office failure.Rise to prominence (1973–1974)
Bachchan was struggling, seen as a "failed newcomer" who, by the age of 30, had only two successes. Bachchan was then discovered by screenwriter duo Salim–Javed, consisting of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. Salim Khan wrote the story, screenplay and script of Zanjeer, and conceived the "angry young man" persona of the lead role. Javed Akhtar came on board as co-writer, and Prakash Mehra, who saw the script as potentially groundbreaking, as the film's director. However, they were struggling to find an actor for the lead "angry young man" role; it was turned down by several actors, owing to it going against the "romantic hero" image dominant in the industry at the time. Salim-Javed "saw his talent, which most makers didn't. He was exceptional, a genius actor who was in films that weren't good." According to Salim Khan, they "strongly felt that Amitabh was the ideal casting for Zanjeer". Salim Khan introduced Bachchan to Prakash Mehra, and Salim-Javed insisted that Bachchan be cast for the role.Zanjeer was a crime film with violent action, in sharp contrast to the romantically themed films that had generally preceded it, and it established Amitabh in a new persona—the "angry young man" of Bollywood. He earned his first Filmfare Award nomination for Best Actor, with Filmfare later considering this one of the most iconic performances in Bollywood history. The film was a blockbuster and one of the highest-grossing films of that year, breaking Bachchan's dry spell at the box office and making him a star. It was the first of many collaborations between Salim-Javed and Amitabh; the duo wrote many of their subsequent scripts with Bachchan in mind for the lead role, and insisted on him being cast for their later films. Salim Khan also introduced Bachchan to director Manmohan Desai with whom he formed a long and successful association, alongside Prakash Mehra and Yash Chopra.
Eventually, Bachchan became one of the most successful leading men of the film industry. His portrayal of the wronged hero fighting a crooked system and circumstances of deprivation in films like Zanjeer, Deewaar, Trishul, Kaala Patthar and Shakti resonated with the masses of the time, especially the youth who harboured a simmering discontent owing to social ills such as poverty, hunger, unemployment, corruption, social inequality and the brutal excesses of The Emergency. This led to Bachchan being dubbed as the "angry young man", a journalistic catchphrase that became a metaphor for the dormant rage, frustration, restlessness, sense of rebellion and anti-establishment disposition of an entire generation, prevalent in the 1970s.
The year 1973 was also when he married Jaya, and around this time they appeared in several films together: not only Zanjeer but also subsequent films such as Abhimaan, which was released around the same time after their wedding and was also successful at the box office. Later, he played the role of Vikram, once again along with Rajesh Khanna, in the film Namak Haraam, a social drama directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and addressing themes of friendship. The film proved to be a superhit and Bachchan won his second Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. The flow of successes continued for Bachchan in 1974. He began the year with a guest appearance in Dulal Guha's blockbuster social drama film Dost. After this, he starred in Aravind Sen's drama film Kasauti and Narendra Bedi's crime thriller Benaam, both of which ended up as moderate commercial successes. Bachchan's next release was Manoj Kumar's fourth directional venture Roti Kapada Aur Makaan. The film opened to excellent response all over the country, eventually taking top spot at the box office that year and emerging an All Time Blockbuster as well as Bachchan's biggest up to that point of time. Before the end of year, he delivered a hit in Ravi Tandon's crime thriller Majboor. Written by Salim-Javed, it also had Pran and Parveen Babi in the lead.