In the late sixties, 6.2 feet in height, a lanky 26-year-old struggler arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) with plans A and B. His plan A was to become a film actor. And plan B was to be a cab driver just in case he failed in plan A, he had arrived with a driving license. With no place to stay, it is reported that on a few occasions, he slept at the Marine drive benches in the company of some of the largest rats he had seen in his life.
Before he arrived in Bombay, the young man was rejected by All India Radio (AIR) for the job of a radio announcer, due to his heavy and husky voice. In Bombay, the movie mogul would not risk a tall, struggling actor in the role of a hero. Nonetheless, the struggler without a godfather in Bollywood had arrived with an audacious dream and unbeknown to him, the fate was conspiring to make him rich and famous.
Luck by Chance
In 1969, the same voice which had got him rejection to be a radio announcer, due to luck by chance landed the job of a voice narrator in the national award-winning movie ‘Bhuwan Shome’, directed by Mrinal Sen, a film that got the moniker of a landmark in modern Indian cinema.
In the same year, he also got the debut role as one of the seven protagonists (Anwar Ali, a Muslim Urdu poet from Bihar) in the movie ‘Saat Hindustani’, written, directed, and produced by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. The movie, set in Goa, traced the efforts of seven revolutionaries from different parts of India to free Goa from Portuguese rule. The young man got Rs 5,000 from his first movie. His last drawn per month salary in a corporate firm in Calcutta was Rs 16,000. Thus marked the entry of Amitabh Bachchan into Bollywood. ‘Saat Hindustani’ tanked on the silver screen and the struggler was back to struggling days.
Silver line Amid Super Flops
Out of 13 movies that were released starring Amitabh Bachchan between 1969 and 1972, 12 flopped at the box office. But the sole silver lining was his role as Dr Bhaskar Banerjee, Babu Moshai, in the 1971 film ‘Anand’, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherji. Amitabh won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal, while Rajesh Khanna got the award for the best actor for playing Anand and Hrishikesh Mukherjee got the Best Picture Award for ‘Anand’. In the interim, Bachchan also played a cameo role in ‘Guddi’, starring Jaya Bhaduri (now Bachchan).
The Trinity
It was five decades ago in 1973, that Amitabh Bachchan first rocked Bollywood with the trinity of his hits, in a row- ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Abhiman’ and ‘Namak Haram’. In Prakash Mehra’s film ‘Zanjeer’, with the script written by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, the role of Amitabh as the unsmiling, fearless, no-nonsense police inspector Vijay Khanna seeking justice in a corrupt system, got him going as a saleable star. It also gave Amitabh the moniker ‘Angry Young Man’ and a new screen name ‘Vijay’, that stuck (he was named Vijay at least in 21 movies since then) and it also gave him a nomination for the Filmfare Best Actor Award.
‘Namak Haram’, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, released after the blockbuster ‘Zanjeer’, marked the true arrival of stardom for Bachchan, with his co-star Rajesh Khanna quipping “someone has come to replace his stardom”. But it was ‘Abhiman’, the 1973 film starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan that made the maximum impact on my persona. It was his biggest hit of the year. ‘Abhiman’, which completed 50 years in July 2023, was the first ever Bachchan film I saw and it remains my all-time favourite. After 50 years of its release, ‘Abhiman’ was screened as the inaugural film at the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival on December 15, 2022.
‘Saudagar’, the fourth Amitabh starrer of 1973, though did not set the box office on fire, was India’s official nominee for that year’s Oscar.
The Stardom
By the end of the 1970s, Bachchan had acted in more than three dozen hit movies and became the undisputed top-ranked actor. His popularity became a cult phenomenon and he turned into a cultural icon, drawing a large number of screaming fans wherever he went including his weekly Sunday Darshan from the terrace of his Juhu Bungalow.
The Mighty Fall
After a near-fatal accident on the set of the film ‘Coolie’, Bachchan snatched life from the jaws of death, had a few flops in between and goaded by his then-friend Rajiv Gandhi, entered Lok Sabha in 1984 from Allahabad. But realising politics was not his cup of tea, he exited political life sooner.
Thence after ruling Bollywood for a quarter century, there was a big-time fall for Bachchan, the undisputed king and superstar of the Hindi film industry. It was all over for Bachchan. His movies bombed one by one, bleeding money. Endorsements vanished. His corporate venture Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL) lost money and its production of the Miss World pageant witnessed massive protests from feminist groups and others. And as the story goes, with $20 million of debt, it was a forgettable time in the life of Amitabh Bachchan.
Rising from the Ashes
And then his kismet did a somersault. Amitabh Bachchan rose from the ashes of Ala Phoenix and the Big B grows bigger by the day. When I look at the never-dying charisma of Big B, as a keen watcher of Bollywood, I attribute his rebirth among others to two key decisions.
One, debt-laden and his movies going nowhere, his decision in 2000 to agree to host ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ proved to be a masterstroke. It gave birth to the new suited-booted, sophisticated, self-deprecating, witty and wiser Bachchan.
The second was, in an era of new generation stars, his taking to challenging experimental acting roles with the new genre of filmmakers. And over time, Bachchan bloomed into a new genre of boundaryless evergreen actor.
Best of the Best
Everyone, including yours truly, has his or her own collection of the best movies of all time of Amitabh Bachchan. Here is the curated list of his 30 best films, selected by Filmfare magazine in 2019, rated so by viewers on IMDB, to which I can easily add 20 more –
Anand (1971), Chupke Chupke (1975), Pink (2016), Black (2005), Sholay (1975), Deewar (1975), Badla (2019), Abhiman (1973), Don (1978), Trishul (1978), Agneepath (1990), Piku (2015), Milli (1975), Zanjeer (1973), 102 Not Out (2018), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), Baghban (2003), Silsila (1981), Kabhie Kabhie (1976), Sharaabi (1984), Namak Halaal (1982), Namak Halaal (1982), Paa (2009), Satte Pe Satta (1982), Saudaagar (1973), Lawaaris (1981), Hum (1991) and Shakti (1982).
206 Not Out
With more than four movies released every year starring Amitabh Bachchan, it is nearly impossible to keep track of his movies, but I have counted at least 206 movies in which he has acted in the last 54 years. And despite the debut of Agastya Nanda, the third generation from the Bachchan clan, with Joya Akhtar directing ‘Archie’, the Big B is still getting bigger and stronger. Soon, four Bachchan movies will be hitting the silver screen, ‘Ganapath: A Hero is Born’, ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, ‘Section 84’ and ‘Thalaivar 170’.
It indeed has been the epic Agneepath expedition of the Angry Young Man to Shahenshah and Sarkar and the best of Big B is yet to arrive.
Feted, Feted and Feted
Despite three close encounters with death, and innumerable ups and downs, in sheer longevity on the big screen and small screen, Big B has surpassed all Indian actors living and dead. Unsurprisingly, then, in terms of accolades, awards and rewards, he has left all behind by a big margin. And as I can see, his time has just begun. There are many more years left to his acting prowess and awards.
A few of his awards are given below:
Filmfare awards
Apart from becoming the first artist to be conferred with the Filmfare Lifetime Award, named after Raj Kapoor in 1991, Superstar of the Millennium in 2000, and Special Award (for completing 40 years in the Indian film industry) in 2011, Amitabh Bachchan has won sixteen Filmfare Awards and is the most nominated performer in any major acting category at Filmfare, with 42 nominations overall. He has also won 11 Screen Awards. Filmfare Awards include Best Actor award for ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ (1978), ‘Don’ (1979), ‘Hum’ (1992), ‘Black’ (2006) and ‘Paa’ (2010); Best Actor in Supporting Role awards for ‘Anand’ (1972), ‘Namak Haram’ (1974) and ‘Mohabbattein’ (2001) and the Best Actor critics award for ‘Aks’ (2001), ‘Black’ (2006), ‘Piku’ (2016) and ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ (2021).
National Film Awards
He is also the recipient of the National Film Awards four times as Best Actor- ‘Agneepath’ (1990), ‘Black’ (2005), ‘Paa’ (2009 and ‘Piku’ (2015) and once for the Best Film as producer ‘Piku’ (2005). In 2018, he was also conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest award in the field of cinema, for his outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema.
What more can one ask for? But there is more.
Padma Awards
The Government of India has conferred Amitabh Bachchan with Padma Shri (1984), Padma Bhushan (2001) and Padma Vibhushan (2015), the fourth, third and second civilian awards of the nation. Only five other Indian actors have been conferred with the Padma Vibhushan Award: V. Shantaram; Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan, better known as Zohra Sehgal; Akkineni Nageswara Rao; Dilip Kumar and Rajinikanth.
Other Country Awards
In 2007, he also received Officer of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest civilian honour and in 1991, Order of Afghanistan by the President of Afghanistan apart from an honorary doctorate from De Montfort University in Leicester, UK; Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire, UK; Academy of Arts, Egypt and Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. In 1999, Bachchan was voted the ‘Greatest Star of Stage or Screen of the Millennium’ in a BBC 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 and in 2000, he became the first living Asian to have been modelled at London’s Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Another statue was installed in New York in 2009, Hong Kong in 2011, Bangkok in 2011 and Washington, DC in 2012.
He has also received a Doctorate from eight universities — five Indian and three foreign — including from his alma mater, University of Delhi and Rabindra Bharati University.
The list of awards and rewards conferred on Amitabh Bachchan is so big that it is the subject matter of a separate article altogether.
Yeh Dil Mange More
From the struggler honorary who gave 12 super flops between 1969 and 1972, to the angry young man of the silver screen to being a bankable star thereafter, indubitably Amitabh Bachchan has traversed the Agneepath to turn the ‘Shahenshah’ of comebacks and ‘Sarkar’ of Indian cine industry. Way back in 2005, the American Weekly, while dubbing him as the biggest star in the world, had the following to add:
“He’s tall, dark, handsome and, at 63, Amitabh Bachchan is still a heartthrob to millions. Women swoon over his soulful brown eyes, his deep sexy voice, and his polished accent. Voters in a BBC online poll have dubbed him ‘actor of the millennium’; the biggest box-office draw in the world, the one with the most recognisable face anywhere.”
To end the piece, all I can say is Amitabh Bachchan is not done yet, there is more to him in years to come. All I can say is: “Yeh dil mange more.”
The author is a Multi-Disciplinary Thought Leader and India-based International Impact Consultant. He works as President Advisory Services of Consulting Company, BARSYL He is a compulsive watcher of Bollywood movies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.