The world of Amitabh Bachchan.

Amitabh Bachchan is a legendary Bollywood actor and one of the most important figures in the Indian film industry. He was born on 11th October in 1942 (now aged 65) in the city of Allahabad, in India.

In 1973 he married a bollywood actress called Jaya Bhaduri. He has two children, one daughter called Shweta Nanda and one son who is also a bollywood actor called Abhishek Bachchan. In 2007 his son married a bollywood actress called Aishwarya Rai and his daughter is married to an industrialist called Nikhil Nanda. He holds the record for the most number of Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare. As well as acting, he has worked as a playback singer, film producer, television presenter, and was an elected member of the Indian Parliament (which is the federal and supreme legislative body of India) from 1984 to 1987.

Amitabh’s father was a well-known Hindi poet. Amitabh has a double M.A (Master of Arts) degree. He then went to Delhi University earning a degree in science.

In his twenties, he gave up his job to follow a career in acting.

Amitabh Bachchan received three National Film Awards, four Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, twelve Filmfare Awards, five International Indian Film Academy Awards, three Bollywood Movie Awards, three Zee Cine Awards, four Star Screen Awards and four stardust Awards. He also received other awards like Television Awards, National honours and international honours and recognitions.

Throughout his career he has done over 100 films.

What I like about Amitabh is that he has tried every kind of characters and he has won so much awards to show his achievement to the bollywood industry that he is worthy actor and to his grand-children.

The fact that he is still continuing to acting to an old age and after so much events that happened in past means that nothing puts him down and shows determination.

Early career: 1969-1972

Amitabh made his film debut in 1969 in the film called Saat Hindustani (Seven Indians). The movie was not a financial success, however he won his first National Film Award for Best Newcomer. In 1970 he stared in successful film called Anand where he starred alongside Rajesh Khanna – the first superstar of Indian silver screen. Amitabh won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his intense performance. In 1972 he had a hit with the multi-starrer road comedy Bombay to Goa. Then came 1973, and the start of the road towards the celebrity status he would eventually come to hold for millions worldwide.

Stardom: 1973-1983

His first major box office success came when director Prakash Mehra cast him in the leading role for his film Zanjeer (Shackles). The movie was a sharp contrast to the romantic-themed ones that had generally come first and recognized Amitabh in a new personality – the "angry young man" action hero of Bollywood. The next decade catapulted him to the top of Bollywood superstardom. He gave out at least one major hit every year, including Deewaar (1975), Sholay (Flames) (1975) Trishul (1978), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Don (1978), Kasme Vaade (1978), Kaala Patthar (Black Stone) (1979), Mr. Natwarlal (1979), Ram Balram (1980), Shaan (1980), Lawaaris (1981), and Shakti (Power) (1982).

All the above-mentioned films covered his status as Bollywood's most excellent action hero.

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 life to save him. Nevertheless he spent many months recovering and continued filming later that year after a long period of recuperation. The film was released in 1983 and due to the huge publicity of his accident, the film was a box office success.

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All the above-mentioned films covered his status as Bollywood's most excellent action hero.

Political career: 1984-1987

In 1984, Amitabh took a break from acting and briefly entered politics in support of his long-term 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 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. His old friend Amar Singh helped him during a financial crisis due to the failure of his company ABCL. Therefore he started to support Amar Singh's political party, the Samajwadi Party. Jaya Bachchan (his wife) joined the Samajwadi Party and became a Rajya Sabha Member. He has continued to do favours for the Samajwadi Party, including adverts and political campaigns.

The 15-year press ban

Stardust (a popular and high-ranking Indian magazine) and some of the film magazines got together to form an association and banned Amitabh for 15 years. They decided not to print anything about him, in any of their publications. He 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 he had banned certain publications because he disliked what was being published about him which is a great idea.

Career collapse and brief retirement: 1988-1992

In 1988, Amitabh come back to films after a three year gap in politics and played the title role in Shahenshah (Emperor), which was a box office success due to the hype of his comeback. After the success of his comeback film however, his star power began to decrease as all of his following films failed at the box office. Until 1990 when he won his second National Film Award, for his memorable performance as a Mafia don in the film Agneepath. These years would be the last he would be seen on screen for some time. After the release of (God is witness) in 1992, he went into semi-retirement for five years. In 1994 one of his delayed films was released but was also a box office failure.

Forming a career and acting comeback 1996-1999

Amitabh turned producer during his temporary retirement period and setup Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd. (A.B.C.L.) in 1996. A.B.C.L'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 to be produced by the company was Tere Mere Sapne (Our Dreams) which failed to do well at the box office but launched the careers of actors such as Arshad Warsi. A.B.C.L produced a few other films, none of which did well.

In 1997, he attempted to make his acting comeback with the film Mrityudaata, produced by A.B.C.L. Though Mrityudaata (his film) attempted to reprise his earlier success as an action hero, like most of A.B.C.L projects, the film was a failure both financially and critically. A.B.C.L was the main sponsor of The 1996 Miss World beauty pageant, Bangalore, and lost millions due to the poor management of the event.

A.B.C.L was reported to have overpaid most of its top level managers, which 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.

Amitabh later attempted to continue his acting career and had average success with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (Big Brother, Small Brother) in 1998 and received positive reviews for Sooryavansham in 1999. However, his glory days were over as all his other films such as Lal Baadshah in 1999 and Hindustan Ki Kasam in 1999 were box office failures.

Health - 1982 injury during filming

While filming Coolie in 1982, Amitabh 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 was even close to death. He had the support and concern of his fans and the nation in general followed. After recovering, he continued shooting for Coolie, and it was finally released as a huge success owing to its pre-release publicity. The director, Manmohan Desai changed the ending for Coolie after Amitabh’s accident. His character was originally planned to have been killed off, but after the change of script, the character lived in the end. 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 negative about everything and just couldn’t handle the pressure of a new film’s release. Before every release he would say, "Yeh film to flop hogi!" ("This film will flop").

2000-present

In 2000, Amitabh gained his fame when he appeared in Yash Chopra’s box-office super hit, Mohabbatein (Love Stories) directed by Aditya Chopra, in which he played an older figure. Audiences appreciated his work, as he played a character whose age just about matched 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 him in appearing as an older family patriarch in Ek Rishtaa: The Bond of Love in 2001, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (sometimes happiness & sometimes sadness) in 2001 and Baghban (Gardener) in 2003. As an actor, he continued to explore different kinds of characters and receiving important praise for his performances in Aks (The Reflection) in 2001, Aankhen (eyes) in 2002, Khakee in 2004, Dev in 2004 and Black in 2005.

Amitabh started to give his support to a different line of products and services, occurring in many television and advertisements. In 2005 and 2006 he starred with his son Abhishek in the hit films Bunty Aur Babli in 2005, Sarkar (the Godfather) in 2005, and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (Never Say Good Bye) in 2006. All of them have been very successful at the box office. His later releases in 2006 and early 2007: Baabul, Eklavya and Nishabd (silent) failed to do well at the box office but his performances in each of them have been appreciated by reporters and fans.

On 25th May 2007 two of his films Cheeni Kum (Sugarless) and the multi-starrer Shootout at Lokhandwala were released. Shootout at Lokhandwala did very well at the box office whereas Cheeni Kum picked up after a slow start and has been an overall average hit. He then made a special appearance as the narrator in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (Dance Baby Dance) which released in June.

On 31st August 2007, he starred in the remake of his biggest hit Sholay (Flames) in 1975 which was titled Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. He played the role of the villain Babban who was played by the late actor Amjad Khan in the original one. The film proved to be a disaster at the box office and was also poorly received by critics.

His first English language film The Last Lear premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival on 9th September 2007. He received positive reviews from the critics who praised his performance as his career best. On the sets of “The Last Lear" he turned dialogue writer and he wrote down some on-the-spot Hindi dialogues.

Amitabh 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.

2005 Hospitalization

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

Did you know…..?

That his daughter-in-law is the actress who acted in the Hindi- English movie called Bride and Prejudice.

Fans voted him the millennium's biggest star in a BBC Online poll in 1999.

The actor became a grandfather in 1998 and had once asked his fans to remain loyal after age stole his looks.

He stated that - "I said if I don't become an actor, I will be a cab driver."

An entire generation of Indians grew up during the 1980’s idolising Amitabh, trying to copy his hairstyle, his walk and even the rich baritone of his voice.

Amitabh Bachchan took time out to volunteer and browse around an Oxfam shop in Westbourne Grove, London, on 22nd May in 2007 to launch a series of Oxfam fringe events in the lead up to the prestigious awards weekend in Yorkshire on June 7-9 and Oxfam is the support of the international aid agency, which is a charity partner to the 2007 International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFAs).

An anti-smoking activist group in India threatened to take legal action against the Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan for smoking in a movie poster. India's National Organization for Tobacco Eradication said it would take him to court if he fails to reply to its demand for an explanation. He said he had asked his producers to take immediate steps to ensure that no violations took place and he apologized.