Early and personal life

See also: Bachchan family

Bachchan was born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, in north central India.[18] His a
ncestors hailed from a village called Babupatti in the Raniganj taluka of Pratap
garh district in Uttar Pradesh.[19][20] His father Harivansh Rai Srivastava (Bac
hchan) was a well-known Hindi poet and his mother Teji Bachchan was a Punjabi Si
kh from Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), Punjab.[21] Bachchan was initially named Inqu
ilaab, inspired by the phrase Inquilab Zindabad popularly used during the Indian
independence struggle. In English, Inquilab Zindabad means "Long live the revol
ution." However, at the suggestion of fellow poet Sumitranandan Pant, Harivansh
Rai changed the boy's name to Amitabh, which means "the light that will never di
e."[citation needed] Although his surname was Shrivastava, Amitabh's father had
adopted the pen name Bachchan ("child-like" in colloquial Hindi), under which he
published all of his works.[citation needed] It is with this last name that Ami
tabh debuted in films and for all other practical purposes, Bachchan has become
the surname for all of his immediate family.[citation needed] Bachchan's father
died in 2003, and his mother in 2007.[22]
Bachchan is an alumnus of Sherwood College, Nainital. He later attended Kirori M
al College, University of Delhi.[23] He has a younger brother, Ajitabh. His moth
er had a keen interest in theatre and was offered a feature film role, but she p
referred her domestic duties. Teji had some influence in Amitabh Bachchan's choi
ce of career because she always insisted that he should "take the centre stage."
[24]
Bachchan is married to actress Jaya Bhaduri. The couple have two children, Shwet
a Nanda (wife of businessman Nikhil Nanda) and Abhishek Bachchan (actor and husb
and of actress Aishwarya Rai).
Career
Early work: 1969 1972
Bachchan made his film debut in 1969 as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen's Nationa
l Award winning film Bhuvan Shome.[25] His first acting role was as one of the s
even protagonists in the film Saat Hindustani directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and
featuring Utpal Dutt, Anwar Ali (brother of comedian Mehmood), Madhu and Jalal
Agha.[26][27]
Anand (1971) followed, in which Bachchan starred alongside Rajesh Khanna. His ro
le as a doctor with a cynical view of life garnered Bachchan his first Filmfare
Best Supporting Actor award. He then played his first antagonist role as an infa
tuated lover-turned-murderer in Parwana (1971). Following Parwaana were several
films including Reshma Aur Shera (1971). During this time, he made a guest appea
rance in the film Guddi which starred his future wife Jaya Bhaduri. He narrated
part of the film Bawarchi. In 1972 he made an appearance in the road action come
dy Bombay to Goa directed by S. Ramanathan. Many of Bachchan's films during this
early period did not do well, but that was about to change.[28]
Rise to stardom: 1973 1983
Bachchan and wife Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan in 2013, the couple got married in 1973,
after the release of Zanjeer.
Director Prakash Mehra cast him in the leading role for the film Zanjeer (1973)
as Inspector Vijay Khanna. The film was a sharp contrast to the romantically the
med films that had generally preceded it and established Amitabh in a new person
a the "angry young man" of Bollywood cinema.[8] Filmfare considers this one of the
most iconic performances of Bollywood history.[28] The film was a huge success
and one of the highest-grossing films of that year, breaking Bachchan's dry spel
l at the box office and making him a star.[29] From then onwards, Bachchan becam
e one of the most successful leading men of the film industry. He earned his fir
st Filmfare nomination for Best Actor for Zanjeer. The year 1973 was also when h
e married Jaya, and around this time they appeared in several films together; no
t only in Zanjeer but in films such as Abhimaan which followed and was released
only a month after their marriage and was also successful at the box office. Lat
er, Bachchan played the role of Vikram, once again along with Rajesh Khanna, in
the film Namak Haraam, a social drama directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and scrip
ted by Biresh Chatterjee addressing themes of friendship. His supporting role wo
n him his second Filmfare Best Supporting Actor award.
In 1974, Bachchan made several guest appearances in films such as Kunwara Baap a
nd Dost, before playing a supporting role in Roti Kapda Aur Makaan. The film, di
rected and written by Manoj Kumar, addressed themes of honesty in the face of op
pression and financial and emotional hardship and was the top earning film of 19
74. Bachchan then played the leading role in film Majboor, released on 6 Decembe
r 1974, which was a remake of the Hollywood film Zig Zag. The film was a success
at the box office.[30] In 1975, he starred in a variety of film genres from the
comedy Chupke Chupke, the crime drama Faraar to the romantic drama Mili. 1975 w
as also the year when Bachchan appeared in two films regarded as important in Hi
ndi cinema history. He starred in the Yash Chopra directed film Deewaar along wi
th Shashi Kapoor, Nirupa Roy, and Neetu Singh, earning him a Filmfare nomination
for Best Actor. The film became a major hit at the box office in 1975, ranking
in at number 4.[31] Indiatimes Movies ranks Deewaar amongst the Top 25 Must See
Bollywood Films.[32] Released on 15 August 1975 was Sholay, which became the hig
hest-grossing film of 1975 and also of all time in India, earning INR 2,364,500,
000 equivalent to US$60 million, after adjusting for inflation.[33] in which Bac
hchan played the role of Jaidev. In 1999, BBC India declared it the "Film of the
Millennium" and like Deewar, has been cited by Indiatimes movies as amongst the
Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[32] In that same year, the judges of the 50th
annual Filmfare Awards awarded it with the special distinction award called Film
fare Best Film of 50 Years.
In 1976, he was cast by Yash Chopra in the romantic family drama Kabhie Kabhie.
Bachchan starred as a young poet named Amit Malhotra who falls deeply in love wi
th a beautiful young girl named Pooja (Rakhee Gulzar) who ends up marrying someo
ne else (Shashi Kapoor). The film was notable for portraying Bachchan as a roman
tic hero, a far cry from his "angry young man" roles like Zanjeer and Deewar. Th
e film evoked a favourable response from critics and audiences alike. Bachchan w
as again nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award for his role in the film. T
hat same year he played a double role in Adalat as father and son. In 1977, he w
on his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in Amar Akbar Anthony
where he played the third lead opposite Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor as Anthon
y Gonsalves. The film was the highest-grossing film of that year. His other succ
esses that year include Parvarish and Khoon Pasina.[34] He once again resumed do
uble roles in films such as Kasme Vaade (1978) as Amit and Shankar and Don (1978
) playing the characters of Don, a leader of an underworld gang and his look ali
ke Vijay. His performance won him his second Filmfare Best Actor Award. He also
gave towering performances in Yash Chopra's Trishul and Prakash Mehra's Muqaddar
Ka Sikandar both of which earned him further Filmfare Best Actor nominations.
In 1979, Bachchan starred in Suhaag which was the highest earning film of that y
ear. In the same year he also enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success wi
th films like Mr. Natwarlal, Kaala Patthar and The Great Gambler. Amitabh was re
quired to use his singing voice for the first time in a song from the film Mr. N
atwarlal in which he starred with Rekha. Bachchan's performance in the film saw
him nominated for both the Filmfare Best Actor Award and the Filmfare Award for
Best Male Playback Singer. He also received Best Actor nomination for Kaala Patt
har and then went on to be nominated again in 1980 for the Raj Khosla directed f
ilm Dostana, in which he starred opposite Shatrughan Sinha and Zeenat Aman. Dost
ana proved to be the top-grossing film of 1980.[35] In 1981, he starred in Yash
Chopra's melodrama film Silsila, where he starred alongside his wife Jaya and Re
kha. Other films of this period like Shaan (1980), Shakti (1982) which pitted hi
m against the veteran actor Dilip Kumar were not successful at the box office bu
t Ram Balram (1980), Naseeb (1981) and Lawaaris (1981) were successful.[36]
In 1982 he played double roles in the films Satte Pe Satta and Desh Premee which
succeeded at the box office.[37] In 1983 he played a triple role in Mahaan and
starred in the top-grossing film of that year Coolie.[38]
1982 injury while filming Coolie
On 26 July 1982, while filming Coolie,in the University Campus in Bangalore, Bac
hchan suffered a near fatal intestinal injury during the filming of a fight scen
e with co-actor Puneet Issar.[39] Bachchan was performing his own stunts in the
film and one scene required him to fall onto a table and then on the ground. How
ever, 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 bloo
d. He required an emergency splenectomy and remained critically ill in hospital
for many months, at times close to death. The public response included prayers i
n temples and offers to sacrifice limbs to save him, while later, there were lon
g queues of well-wishing fans outside the hospital where he was recuperating.[40
]
Nevertheless, he resumed filming later that year after a long period of recupera
tion. The film was released in 1983, and partly due to the huge publicity of Bac
hchan's accident, the film was a box office success and the top-grossing film th
at year.[41]
The director, Manmohan Desai, altered the ending of Coolie after Bachchan's acci
dent. Bachchan's character was originally intended to have been killed off but a
fter the change of script, the character lived in the end. It would have been in
appropriate, said Desai, for the man who had just fended off death in real life
to be killed on screen. Also, in the released film the footage of the fight scen
e is frozen at the critical moment, and a caption appears onscreen marking this
as the instant of the actor's injury and the ensuing publicity of the accident.[
42]
Later, he was diagnosed with Myasthenia gravis. His illness made him feel weak b
oth mentally and physically and he decided to quit films and venture into politi
cs. At this time he became pessimistic, expressing concern with how a new film w
ould be received and stated before every release, "Yeh film to flop hogi!" ("Thi
s film will flop").[43]
Politics: 1984 87
In 1984, Bachchan took a break from acting and briefly entered politics in suppo
rt of long-time family friend, Rajiv Gandhi. He contested Allahabad's seat of 8t
h Lok Sabha against H. N. Bahuguna, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and w
on by one of the highest victory margins in general election history (68.2% of t
he vote).[44] His political career, however, was short-lived: he resigned after
three years, calling politics a cesspool. The resignation followed the implicati
on of Bachchan and his brother in the "Bofors scandal" by a newspaper, which he
vowed to take to court.[45] Bachchan was eventually found not guilty of involvem
ent in the ordeal[citation needed].
His old friend, Amar Singh, helped him during the financial crisis caused by the
failure of his company, ABCL. Thereafter Bachchan started supporting the Samajw
adi Party, the political party to which Amar Singh belonged. Furthermore, Jaya B
achchan joined the Samajwadi party and represented the party as an MP in the Raj
ya Sabha.[46] Bachchan has continued to do favours for the Samajwadi party, incl
uding appearing in advertisements and political campaigns. These activities have
recently got him into trouble in the Indian courts for false claims after a pre
vious incident of submission of legal papers by him, stating that he is a farmer
.[47]
A 15-year press ban against Bachchan was imposed during his peak acting years by
Stardust and some of the other film magazines. In his defence, Bachchan claimed
to have banned the press from entering his sets until late 1989.[48]
Comeback and retirement: 1988 1992
Bachchan during the shoot of 1990 Hindi film Agneepath.
In 1988, B