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Born Oct 11 , 1942
A lanky gaunt young man sat in his apartment in Bombay moodily stringing his guitar. He had made up his mind. He was going back to Calcutta. He had been a stage actor, a radio announcer and a freight company executive and he had landed in Bombay to create a career in films. He had been rejected at his first screen test. They didn't like his voice, his height. The break in Saat Hindustani had not done him any good, he mused. Enough was enough. He could always get a job in his old company Bird and Co. (Or maybe as he would joke decades later in an interview - sell milk!) Then destiny knocked on the door. A young successful actress -- Jaya Bhaduri and some other friends of his had decided to put an end to this introverted Libran's lonely brooding. They partied all night. Come the morning the young actor had missed his train and he was never to go back to Calcutta again.
That scene was set somewhere in the early 70s and the man was Amitabh Bachchan whose character in his debut film in 1968 directed by K A Abbas even then had shades of the angry young man -- an image he moulded himself into years later. But back then his height (later translated as his imposing presence) was seen as a liability and so was his voice. Ironically the voice that was to thrill generations was cast as a mute in Reshma Aur Shera. It was as Dr Bhaskar in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand (1970) that made Bollywood sit up and gawk. He had managed to steal some scenes from the then reigning romantic hero Rajesh Khanna, a feat he repeated in Namak Haram. His characters in both films displayed a serious persona, moody with a latent anger. He also took a whack at a lighter role in Bombay to Goa. His director Mehmood claims that Amitabh broke down and cried cause he wasn't able to dance in the film.
But then Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan wrote Zanjeer and the film rewrote Bachchan's career and the Indian film history -- the angry young man was born. The quietly menacing dialogue delivered in his rich deep voice, the studied sauntering steps and the casual bored gaze and the moments wherein the intensity of his being and the latent anger exploded on the screen - a character to be played in different nuances in Deewar, Sholay, Muqadar Ka Sikander and so on. The anger against the system was sometimes replaced by an inner anger as the violent drunk character in Mili who is tortured by his parent's past or in Kala Pathar where his character flagellates himself physically and emotionally for his past cowardice by working as a coal miner. In 1973 he gave a masterly performance in Abhimaan as the egoistic husband tormented by his wife's success.
A criminal, a bastard, a coward, a murderer, a con man, an honest man in a corrupt system, his characters often rejected by the 'society' in his movies caught the mood of the 70s, a period of social unrest which saw several activist movements and the black years of the Emergency. However it was not all flame and fury for Bachchan. The perfect comic timing exhibited in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Chupke Chupke in 1975 was repeated again and successfully in Suhaag, Mr Natwarlal, Do Aur Do Paanch, Ram Balram, Naseeb and so on. The hero-comedian was born. Don (1978) showed the split personality traits he had acquired over the years - of the intense and of the buffoon. With his performance in Amar Akbar Anthony, especially the scene where he in a drunken fit talks to his double in the mirror, the hero-comedian was firmly entrenched in the public psyche and for a long time till the emergence of the Johny Lever, comedians were doled out crumbs of footage in Hindi films. And by now he had created his own unique dance style - unique cause it was created partly from Mumbai street ishtyle choreography and partly for Bachchan to use his long hands gracefully!
He had passed on from the superhero status to that of a legend after he survived the deadly accident on the sets of Coolie. He had won Filmfare Awards (Best supporting Actor for Anand and Namak Haram and Best Actor Awards for Amar Akbar Anthony and Hum) on four occasions and in 1984 was awarded the Padma Shri. His fame had spread abroad too. He had been 'woman' handled by a horde of Egyptian women at Cairo Airport -- an incident that that incurred the wrath of fundamentalists in the country who berated the way the women had behaved. During the shooting of Khuda Gawah in Afghanistan, the late president Najibullah provided the team with an impressive escort of the Afghan Air Force -- in exchange for lots of photographs with him.
His personal life was the subject of discussion in the country. The image of a family man, son of Teji and Harivansh Rai Bachchan (a noted Hindi poet), husband of a superlative actress Jaya, father of Abhishek and Shweta - cracked a little as the love story of the decade unfolded. The gorgeous intelligence of Rekha had been a perfect foil to his intense performances and the on screen chemistry between the two provided enough grist to the gossip sections of the media.
Bachchan the superhero held the public imagination till the late 80s when a few bad decisions, bad films and political na�vet� scarred his stainless steel image. After the highly misjudged and hasty entry into politics and the Bofors scandal, Bachchan returned to movies but by then the downfall had begun. Though his charisma and magic would always give the films a good initial, they would eventually fizzle out. With the break-up of Javed-Salim team there was no one who could create characters that were just right for him.
In 1992 Amitabh Bachchan turned corporate and established Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL). Under its banner, the 'Miss World' contest and a few other films were produced. The organization turned out to be a white elephant with huge losses turning Bachchan into one of the most sought after celebrity by his creditors.
The late nineties brought in a wave of the Amitabh magic. He was voted as the 'superstar of the millennium' by a BBC poll. When London's famous Madame Tussaud's gallery decided to include a Bollywood figure for it's Hall of Fame due to the popular demand, Bachchan polled more votes than current heartthrobs Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit and even the legendary Raj Kapoor! He was also the recipient of Filmfare's special Star of the Millennium. And now he is winning over new generations of fans as the host of the highly successful Kaun Banega Crorepati. Besides he has several films by some noted young directors of today.
With the next generation of actors before him, including his son Abhishek, Amitabh Bachchan has opted for senior roles, but even then his screen magic just reinforces that he continues to be the original phenomenon, the last superhero of Bollywood!
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