Amitabh Bachchan Wiki, Age, Height, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Amitabh Bachchan has been the reigning Shahenshah of Bollywood since the early 1970s. He is best known for his performances in Bollywood films like ‘Zanjeer’ (1973), ‘Deewaar’ (1975), ‘Sholay’ (1975), ‘Don’ (1978), and ‘Agneepath’ (1990). He faced lots of challenges during his acting career from physical to financial which broke him deeply, but due to his hard work and determination, he now has become the Bollywood megastar. Check out Amitabh Bachchan Wiki, Height, Age, Girlfriend, Wife, Caste, Family, Biography & More.

Biography/Wiki

Amitabh was born as Amitabh Harivansh Rai Shrivastava on 11 October 1942 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. He is known by different names such as Munna, Big B, Angry Young Man, AB Sr., Amith, and Shahenshah of Bollywood. He received several popular awards from the Government of India such as Padma Shri in 1984, Padma Bhushan in 2001, and Padma Vibhushan in 2015.

Physical Appearance

During his initial days in Bollywood, he was often rejected by the filmmakers due to his huge height of 6′ 2” [1], but after winning the National Film Award for Best Newcomer for his debut film Saat Hindustani, he broke the shackles and was widely accepted in the film industry.

Family, Caste & Girlfriend

He belongs to a Kayastha Hindu family and was born to Hindu father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Sikh mother, Teji Bachchan. Shyama is his step-mother.  Initially, Amitabh was named Inquilaab, inspired by an Urdu phrase Inquilab Zindabad but his father changed his name to Amitabh on the suggestion given by his father’s fellow poet Sumitranandan Pant. His surname was Shrivastava, but his father replaced it with the pen name Bachchan. He has a younger brother Ajitabh Bachchan.

Amitabh had a short fling with some Indian actresses Parveen Babi, Rekha, and Jaya Bhaduri. On 3 June 1973, he got married to Jaya Bhaduri, and the couple has a daughter Shweta Bachchan and a son Abhishek Bachchan, who is also an actor.

Career

He did his schooling from Jnana Pramodhini, Boys High School, Allahabad and graduation (B.Sc.) from Kirori Mal College, New Delhi, India. Initially, he wanted to become an engineer and was keen to join the Indian Air Force. After completing studies, he started working with Shaw Wallace. He later started working as a freight broker for the shipping firm Bird and Co.

In 1969, he made his first break as an actor in the Bollywood film Saat Hindustani in which he played the role of Anwar Ali.

In 1984, he joined the politics to support his friend Rajiv Gandhi. He contested for the Allahabad seat against Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna in the eighth Lok Sabha elections. He got the seat with the highest victory margin in the history of the general election, that is, 68.2% of the vote. He resigned after three years in politics and calling politics a cesspool.

He took a temporary break from his acting career to set up his own company Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd. (ABCL) with the purpose to introduce services and products that covers a whole cross-section of the entertainment industry of India. The company started in 1996 and produced several films but none of which did well.

In 1997, he made his comeback as an actor with the Bollywood film Mrityudata that was produced by ABCL, but the film was failed both critically and financially. ABCL was the main sponsor of the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant in Bangalore, but the company lost millions. Later, ABCL went into administration and was declared a failed company by the Indian Industries board. During that time, Indian politician Amar Singh helped him financially and later Amitabh started supporting him and his party Samajwadi Party.

He hosted the popular Indian TV game show Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9. He also hosted the famous reality show Bigg Boss Season 3 (2009) and Indian entertainment talk show Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi (2015-2016). Apart from that, he acted in some TV shows like Yudh (2014) as Yudhisthir Sikarwar and Astra Force (2016-2017) as Astra (Voice Role).

Facts

• He is ambidextrous and can write well with both hands.

• He once gave audition test in All India Radio but was rejected.

• During his struggling days, a popular comedian Mehmood offered him to stay in his own house.

• He had also spent few nights on a bench at Marine Drive, Mumbai.

• Once director Sunil Dutt signed him for a film Reshma Aur Shera (1971) only because he got a letter of introduction from late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

• He is known for his baritone voice and lent his voice as a narrator to many films like Balika Badhu (1975), Tere Mere Sapne (1996), Lagaan (2001), Parineeta (2005), etc.

• He also sung several songs like Do Lafzon Ki of film The Great Gambler (1979), Mere Pas Aao of film Mr. Natwarlal (1979), Chal Mere Bhai of film Naseeb (1981), Neela Aasman of film Silsila (1981), etc.

• During his peak acting years, Stardust imposed a 15-year press ban against him. Later, he claimed to have banned the press from entering his sets until late 1989.

• Before his first superhit film Zanjeer (1973), he has consecutively given 12 flops.
  

• He worked in 8 different languages like Hindi, English, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Bhojpuri, and Malayalam.

• He featured in numerous TV commercial advertisements like ICICI, Emami Boro Plus, Eveready, Justdial, Pepsi, Nerolac, Navaratan Oil, Cadbury, Sahara City Homes, Kalyan Jewellers, Maggi, Dabur, etc.

• During the shooting of film Coolie (1983), he was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis after which he suffered a near fatal intestinal injury.

• He used his screen name Vijay in over 20 films.

• He is the first living Asian who have been modeled in wax at London’s Madame Tussauds wax museum in 2000. There are also many other places where his statue was modeled like New York, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Washington, and Delhi.
  

  Amitabh Bachchan statue

• In 2001, he was honored with the Actor of the Century award at the Alexandria International Film Festival held in Egypt for his contribution to cinema.

•  The government of French honored him with its highest civilian honor Knight of the Legion of Honour.

• Many things in India are named after him like Amitabh Bachchan Sports Complex, Amitabh Bachchan Road, and Amitabh Bachchan Government Inter College, Saifai.

• In Kolkata, there is a temple made after him where he is worshipped as a God.
  

  Amitabh Bachchan temple

• In 2012, he was named Hottest Vegetarian by PETA India.

• In PETA Asia’s contest poll, he won the Asia’s Sexiest Vegetarian title.

• In 2013, he was conferred with the Honorary Citizenship of the French town of Deauville.

• He had a pet dog, Shanouk, which was a Piranha Dane dog, one of the world’s tallest dog breeds. The dog died in June 2013 after a brief illness.
  

  Amitabh Bachchan with his pet dog, Shanouk

• His first car was a second-hand Fiat.

• Amitabh and his son Abhishek Bachchan holds the Guinness World record for being the only father-son duo to have played reversed roles on-screen in the Bollywood film Paa (2009).
  

• The famous French director Francois Truffaut called him one-man industry.

• A number of books have been written about him like Amitabh Bachchan: the Legend; To be or not to be: Amitabh Bachchan; AB: The Legend; Amitabh Bachchan: Ek Jeevit Kimvadanti; Amitabh: The Making of a Superstar; Looking for the Big B: Bollywood, Bachchan & Me; and Bachchanalia.
  

  Book on Amitabh Bachchan

• Amitabh also wrote a book Soul Curry for you and me – An Empowering Philosophy That Can Enrich Your Life that was published in 2002.
  

• He is a pure vegetarian.

• He likes collecting pens and has a collection of over a thousand pens.

• His favourite city is Saint Petersburg in Russia.

• His favourite car is Lexus.
  

  Amitabh Bachchan Lexus Car

• There is a temple dedicated to Mr. Bachchan in Tiljala, a neighborhood of South Kolkata. The temple was built by All Bengal Amitabh Bachchan Fans’ Association. The statute of Mr. Bachchan has been crafted in his ‘Sarkar’ avatar by artist Subrata Bose. [2]
  

  Amitabh Bachchan’s Temple in Tiljala, Kolkata

• On 11 July 2020, he took to Twitter to announce that he was tested positive for COVID-19 and had been admitted to the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai.

T 3590 -I have tested CoviD positive .. shifted to Hospital .. hospital informing authorities .. family and staff undergone tests , results awaited ..
All that have been in close proximity to me in the last 10 days are requested to please get themselves tested !

— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) July 11, 2020