Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan (Devanagari: अमिताभ बच्चन, urdu: امیتابھ بچن), an actor, playback singer, presenter of television and producer, father of Abhishek Bachchan, Shwera Bachchan and father in law of Aishwarya Rai. He is married since 1973 with the actress Jaya Bachchan.

Biography

Son of Sikh mother and Hindu father, the doctor and poet in Hindi and Urdu Harivansh Rai Bachchan who changed his surname from Srivastava to Bachchan.

Amitabh studied at the Allahabad men's institute and later graduated in arts at Sherwood College in Nainital. Later he graduated in science at the University of Delhi. Later, he signed as an agent of a transport company in Calcutta, Bird and Co. to start an artistic career.

Beginnings 1969-1972

Amitabh Bachchan debuted in 1969 as one of the seven protagonists of Saat Hindustani. The film was not very successful, but Bachchan got his first National Film Award.

Critics and the public cheered his commercial Anand (1970) and this film was followed by others of little success such as Reshma Aur Shera (1971) and Parwaana (1971).

The stardom: 1973-1983

His highest grossing film was Prakash Mehra's Zanjeer, where he was given a leading role initially rejected by Dev Anand, the film was a success after several failures and catapulted him to stardom and starred in films like Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Don (1978), Kasme Vaade (1978), Kaala Patthar (1979) and Lawaaris (1981).

All these films made him a great action hero, although he also made other comics such as Chupke Chupke (1975), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Namak Halaal (1982), or romantics such as Kabhie Kabhie (1976) and Silsila (1981). In 1982, he had an accident shooting Coolie. He spent months recovering, and when they could finally get the film out, it was a hit at the box office thanks to all this publicity.

Political career: 1984-1987

In 1984, Amitabh engaged in politics to help his family friend, Rajiv Gandhi. He competed with the well-known politician HN Bahuguna, and won him by a wide margin (68.2% of the electorate). His political career, however, lasted little and ceased at age three, for a matter related to the Bofors scandal. After a judicial process, Bachchan was found not guilty. But later, he left the Gandhi family and after the termination of Rajiv Gandhi, Bachchan went into a crisis for the economic losses of the ABCL. His friend Amar Singh He helped him during the crisis and began to support Mulayam in his political campaign unofficially. Jaya Bachchan joined the Samajwadi Party and was a member of the Rajya Sabha.

The fall: 1988-1999

In 1988, Bachchan returned to the cinema with Shahenshah, which was box office success, in part because of all the publicity that had been given to him. But after the success of this film, the bad streak began at the box office, but it was during this period that he won his second National Film Award, for Agneepath. After Khuda Gawah in 1992, he left semi- retirement for about five years, although he released films like Insaniyat in 1994, which did not achieve much success either.

Bachchan established the Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd. (ABCL) in 1996 during this period, with the intention of turning it into an entertainment emporium. Its commercial strategy was to introduce products and services that cover the entire spectrum of the Indian entertainment industry and its operations were based on distributing and producing typical films, cassettes and videos and in the production and marketing of television software and events and characters important Shortly after, they released the film Tere Mere Sapne in 1996, which was a box office failure, but which served to Arshad Warsi began a career as a comic actor. The ABCL produced more movies, but none went well.

In 1997, Bachchan tried to return to the big screen with Mrityudaata, of the ABCL, but it did not have much profit either. The ABCL lost millions as a sponsor of Miss World 1996. All these economic problems and several legal problems that followed, led to the ruin of the ABCL in 1997. The court of Bombay withdrew Bachchan the power to sell the bungalow he had in this city 'Prateeksha' and two apartments until financial matters with Canara Bank were resolved. Bachchan alleged that he had mortgaged his bungalow to Sahara India Finance to increase the capital of his company. Bachchan later attempted to relaunch his acting career and achieved some success with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998) and Sooryavansham (1999) but others such as Lal Baadshah (1999) and Hindustan Ki Kasam (1999) failed at the box office.

Kaun Banega Crorepati

In 2000, Bachchan presented in India the British contest, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Called there Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC). It was a success, as in many countries and thanks also to the charisma of Bachchan. It is believed that with what he won he was able to recover, but above all, this triumph helped him to recover popularity.

The return: 2000-2007

In 2000, Bachchan again swept the box office with Yash Chopra's film, Mohabbatein, where he played an austere and elderly character antagonistic to Shah Rukh Khan. This film was followed by others such as Ek Rishtaa: A Bond of Love (2001), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Baghban (2003), Aks (2001), Aankhen (2002), Khakee (2004), Dev (2004) and Black (2005). Also, taking advantage of this, he made a lot of publicity.

Recently, he went out with his son in Bunty Aur Babli (2005), Sarkar (2005) or Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (2006). All of them blockbusters. His films Baabul (2006), Eklavya and Nishabd (2007) have not been much, but have been praised by the críticia.

Among his projects is his first English film Shantaram directed by Mira Nair and Johnny Depp in the lead.

Now, with the end of Mulayam Singh's government, he has problems again with certain alleged illegal possessions of agricultural land and alleged forgeries.

Health

In the shooting of Coolie in 1982, Bachchan was wounded in an action scene with Puneet Issar. He was in the hospital months and sometimes about to die. He had a lot of support from his fans and the whole nation in general and when he premiered Coolie, it was a success.

The director, Manmohan Desai changed the ending of Coolie, since the character of Bachchan died at the end. Another supposed incentive of the film was that it included just the scene where it had the accident.

In November 2005, Bachchan was admitted again to the Lilavati Hospital for diverticulitis. At this time, projects and program Kaun Banega Crorepati were suspended until recovery in March 2006.

Bachchan is also asthmatic, suffers from minor thalassemia and myasthenia gravis.