Amitabh Bachchan

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Amitabh Bachchan

            Amitabh Bachchan was born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh on 11^th October 1942. His father name is Harivansh Rai Bachchan and mother is Teji Bachchan. Harivansh Rai Bachchan was a hindi poet. Amitabh Bachchan has a younger brother named Ajitabh. His mother had a keen interest in theatre and had been offered a role in a film, but preferred her domestic duties. She had some degree of influence in Bachchan's choice of career because she always insisted that he should take the centre stage. Amitabh Bachchan studied in Allahabad at Jnana Pramodhini and Boys High School. He completed his education at Sherwood College in Nainital and Kirori Mal College in Delhi. His first job was in Shaw Wallace. Amitabh later worked as a freight broker for a shipping firm called Bird and Co. in Kolkata. In 1969, Amitabh Bachchan made his debut with Saat Hindustani, which won him the National Film Award for Best Newcomer. After this came movies like Reshma Aur Shera, Parwana, and Anand in 1971. He made a huge impact with his performance in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand alongside Rajesh Khanna, winning him the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. His breakthrough as a lead was in the film Zanjeer in 1973 which established his persona of the “angry young man” of Bollywood. Amitabh reworked the image of the Hindi film hero with major hits like Deewar, Sholay, Trishul and Don. Amitabh Bachchan popularised the violent melodrama genre but had an equal flair for tragedies like Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Shakti and comedies like Chupke Chupke, Amar Akbar Anthony as well. His status as a demi-god was evident when the entire nation prayed for his recovery when he met with a fatal injury during the making of Coolie in July, 1982. Amitabh Bachchan was performing his own stunts in the film and one scene required him to fall onto a table and then on the ground. However as he jumped towards the table, the corner of the table struck his abdomen, resulting in a splenic rupture from which he lost a significant amount of blood. He required an emergency splenectomy and remained critically ill in hospital for many months, at times close to death. The public response included prayers in temples and offers to sacrifice limbs to save him, while later there were long queues of well-wishing fans outside the hospital where he was recuperating.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 partly due to the huge publicity of Bachchan's accident, the film was a box office success and the top grossing film that year.

            In 1984, Amitabh entered politics in support of long time friend Rajiv Gandhi. He contested Allahabad’s Lok Sabha seat and won by a huge margin. Accusations of him being involved in the Bofors Scandal made him quit politics, although, later on, he was proved innocent. Amitabh returned to films with blockbusters like Shahenshah, Agneepath, Hum and Khuda Gawah. A series of flops in mid 90’s and the collapse of his company, Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd. landed him in immense debts. He returned back to movies but with no success.In the year 2000, he stepped up to host the television show Kaun Banega Crorepati and later was seen in Mohabbatein along with Shah Rukh Khan. Both these ventures proved extremely successful. Since then Amitabh Bachchan has been on a roll. At sixty plus, with all the endorsements and accolades, he is a greater icon than he was at the height of his popularity three decades ago. In recent past we have seen Amitabh Bachchan doing vastly different roles in fims like Sarkar Raj, The Last Lear, Paa, Teen Patti and Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap. He was last seen in Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan in 2011, the film failed to do well at the box-office but Amitabh’s role was widely appreciated. Amitabh Bachchan receive National Film Awards, Filmfare Awards and other competitive awards which won for his performances throughout the years, he has been awarded several honours for his achievements in the Indian film industry. In 1991, he became the first artist to receive the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, which was established in the name of Raj Kapoor. Amitabh Bachchan was crowned as Superstar of the Millennium in 2000 at the Filmfare Awards. The Government of India awarded him with the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Padma Bhushan in 2001. France's highest civilian honour, the Knight of the Legion of Honour, was conferred upon him by the French Government in 2007 for his "exceptional career in the world of cinema and beyond". In 1999, Amitabh Bachchan was voted the "greatest star of stage or screen" in a BBC Your Millennium online poll. In 2001, he was honoured with the Actor of the Century award at the Alexandria International Film Festival in Egypt in recognition of his contribution to the world of cinema. Many other honours for his achievements were conferred upon him at several International Film Festivals, including the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Asian Film Awards. He was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Jhansi, India in 2004, the University of Delhi in 2006, the De Montfort University in Leicester, UK in 2006, the Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire, UK in 2007, the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, in 2011 and the Jodhpur National University in 2013. On 27 July 2012, Amitabh Bachchan carried the Olympic torch during the last leg of its relay in London's Southwark.

Source : Wikipedia & Google.