TV Movie Star-Portrait

Amitabh Bachchan is the son of the renowned poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan. After a small appearance in the movie Saat Hindustani Amitabh Bachchan became known all over India acting in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's famous movie Anand together with Rajesh Khanna. In the first half of the 1970s Amitabh established himself as the super star of Hindi films. Very often the success of his early years is connected with the role of the angry young man that he played in Zanjeer and Deewar. Though his appearance in these two films was certainly very important for his career, it is too simple to make them the only reason of his success. His early movies Bombay To Goa and Abhimaan, in which his role was quite different from the angry young man image, were very successful, too.

Amitabh's baritone voice is something unique and very soon, he started to sing some tracks for playback songs himself. His most unforgettable songs of the 1970s and early 1980s are "Mere Angane Mein" in Laawaris, "Khaike Pan Banaraswala" in Don, "Rang Barse" in Silsila and "My Name Is Anthony Gonzalves" in Amar Akbar Anthony. In 1995 Bally Sagoo produced the album "Aby Baby", on which Amitabh re-recorded his most famous film songs and some poets penned by his father.

In 1973 Amitabh married Jaya Bhaduri, who was the heroine by his side in Abhimaan, Sholay and Silsila. They have two children: Shweta and Abhishek, who is a well-known Bollywood actor, too. Amitabh's biggest success was India's first 70mm film the legendary Indo western Sholay, which is still among the most successful movies ever made in India.

At the peak of his stardom Amitabh was a living legend. He played himself in the comedy Golmaal and Yash Chopra's Silsila released in 1981 was more or less a film on the rumours about his private life, evoling around his marriage with Jaya Bachchan and an affair with the female movie star of the early 1980s the actress Rekha.

In the 1980s Hindi cinema was in a crisis. One of Amitabh's remarkable films was Coolie. When Amitabh was injured during its shooting and had to be sent to hospital millions of fans prayed for his recovery and his injury was a headline item. The scene in which he was injured was marked by a freeze frame with an insert and cannot be missed.

After the assassination of Indira Gandhi Amitabh decided to support his friend Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress party and contested in an election for the Lok Sabha. He was elected, but resigned during the term. After acting in Khuda Gawah Amitabh withdrew from the screen. Though the movie Insaniyat was only released in 1994 Amitabh did not do any acting from 1993 to 1996.

He made his comeback with Mrityudata in 1997, but the film flopped at the box office. His comeback as a star was in 2000, when he moderated the famous TV quiz "Kaun Banega Crorepati?". In the movie world it was Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham that brought Amitabh back to the top. Since then Amitabh has been very busy acting in up to tern releases a year. His latest hit ithe charming comedy Cheeni Kum, in which his play a 64 year old restaurant owner, who falls in love with a 34 year old woman played by Tabu.
(Quelle: http://www.spicevienna.org/showPerson.php?p=1)