Why Amitabh Bachhan is so popular
Amitabh Bachchan was born in the city ofAllahabad (Uttar Pradesh) in a Hindu Kayastha family. His father Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachhan was a well-known Hindi poet. Amitabh's mother is a shikh from Karachi-Pakistan.[3] and a direct descendent of Dev ji. His mother is actually the grandaughter of Sir Khem Singh Bedi. Khem Singh Bedi was 14th descendant from Lakshmi Das, Guru Nanak's second son and very much spiritual successor to the Bedi clan in the 19th century.
Khem Singh's grandfather was Sahib Singh Bedi who 'annointed' as Maharajah of Lahore and also had previously arranged the marriage of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's father. Amitabh was initially named as Inquilab inspired from the phrase 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 work. 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 the current family.
Bachchan has a double M.A. (Master of Arts) degree.
He attended Allahabad's jnana prabodhini, followed by Nainital's Sherwood College, where he majored in the art stream. He later went on to study at Kirori Mal College in Delhi University earning a degree in science. 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 03, 1973 according to Bengali rites.
the couple have two children: daughter Shweta and son Abhishek.
[edit] Early career: 1969-1972
Amitabh 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.[4].
The critically acclaimed and commercially successful Anand (1970) followed, where he starred alongside Rajesh Khanna who was the star at the time. Bachchan held his own despite playing a supporting role, and won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his intense 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-starrer road comedy Bombay to Goa. Then came 1973, and the start of the road towards the iconic status he would eventually come to hold for millions worldwide.
[edit] Stardom: 1973-1983
Bachchan's first major box office success came when director Prakash Mehra cast him in the leading role for his film, Zanjeer. The movie was a sharp contrast to the romantic-themed ones 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) [5]
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 was critically injured while filming Coolie. He spent many months recovering and resumed filming later that year. The film was released in 1983 and due to the huge publicity of Bachchan's accident, the film was a box office success..[6]
[edit] 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).[7] His political career, however, was short-lived: He resigned after three years, leaving his term incomplete. The resignation followed Bachchan's implication in the 'Bofors scandal' by a newspaper, which he vowed to take to court.[8] Bachchan was eventually found not to be guilty of involvement in the ordeal. After that he detached himself from the Gandhi family.
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. [9]
[edit] Career slump: 1988-1999
In 1988, Bachchan returned to films with Shahenshah, which was a box office success due to the hype of Bachchan's comeback.[10] 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.[11]
Bachchan setup Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd. (A.B.C.L.) in 1996 during his temporary retirement period 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 gamut of the India's entertainment industry. It's 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. 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, 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 of 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. [12]
Bachchan later attempted to revive his acting career and had average success with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998)[13] and received positive reviews for Sooryavansham (1999)[14] 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
posted by Umesh at
5:15 AM
|
0 Comments
