Amitabh Bachchan orginally named Amitabh Harivansh Srivastav was born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. He is by far one of the most successful prominent figures in the history of Bollywood. He is married to the famous actress of her time Jaya Bhaduri and has two children Shweta Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan who has also decided to follow in his fathers path. Amitabh Bachchan attended Allahabads Jnana Prabodhinin, Boy’s High School, Nainital’s Sherwood College, and Kirori Mal College of the University of delhi and with all this education attained a double M.A. degree. Around his twenties Amitabh Bachchan decided to give up his job as a freight broker for a shipping firm Bird and Co and decided to pursue his acting career.
He made his movie debut in 1969 in Saat Hindustani, even though the movie did not do so well at the box office he won his first ever award at the National Film Award for best newcomer. After that he made a few more movies that didn’t do so well at the box office untill 1973 when he was starred in the movie Zanjeer which was a box office hit and also earned him Filmfare Nomination for Best Actor. And that was only the start when all said and done Amitabh Bachchan won numerous awards including twelve Filmfare Awards and three National Film Awards. He holds the most number for best actor nominations at the Filmfare awards.Throughtout his career he has not only played the role of actor, but also worked as a playback singer, film producer and television presenter and was elected to be member of the Indian Parliament from the years 1984-1987. Amitabh Bachchan has appeared in close to 200 movies and t.v. shows and is still continuing his acting career with movies in production due to be released in 2009 such as Shantaram, Teen Pati, and Aladin.
Although he had a very successful career it did come with its share of ups and downs. In 1982 during his filming of the movie Coolie, Amitabh Bachchan decided to take the liberty of doing his own stunts and during a fight scene he was supposed to hit the table then fall down. Instead as he leaped for the table, the corner end struck his abdomen which in turn resulted in a splenic rupture and with that he lost alot of blood. He spent many months in the hospital under critical conditions very close to death. He had become such a phenomenon of his time that this news made world wide coverage and also headlines in the UK. This of course wasn’t the end of it later on he became ill with Mysasthenia gravis which caused him to become very weak mentally and physically and which in turn caused him to take a break from acting and venture into politics. Which came to an end after three years due to a scandal that involved his brother.
After his three years of politics Amitabh Bachchan went back to acting where he starred in the movie Shahenshah which was a major box office hit mainly due to the hype of his comeback. Because thereafter all of his following movies failed at the box office. Which caused him to go into a short 5 year retirement in 1992. Although his movie career went in the slumps Amitabh was very fruitful and turned into a producer during his short lived retirement and setup his company Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd in 1996. Once the company was launched the first film produced was Tere Mere Sapne starring Arshad Warsi, although the intentions were good the movie failed at the box office. Even though Amitabh spent most of the 90’s in the slumps the 2000’s are a whole another story. He appeared in more then 20 movies some victories and some failures at the box office.Amitabh Bachchan has had his shares of up’s and downs in the film industry. Yet always finding a way back to the top in the ever so challenging Bollywood film industry.
If it wasn’t for his dedication and hard work he definitely would not be back at the top again.
7 facts
1. Amitabh Bachchan despises the word Bollywood
2. The only actor who achieved at least one hit every year for 15 consecutive years
3. The highest paid Bollywood actor in the film industry
4.Amitabh has Asthma
5.He is 6’3 ft tall
6.His star sign is a Libra
7.His nicknames are Amitji and Big B
Sources:
http://www.amitabhbachchan.net/
http://www.imdb.com/
