Shahenshah of Bollywood

The Best Baritone of the Film Industry:

Amitabh Bachchan began his career in Films as a Voice Over Artist for Mrinal Sen’s ‘Bhuvan Shome’. It is a Hindi Film led by Utpal Dutt as Mr.Bhuvan Shome. Amitabh was the narrator of the movie.

He has been the narrator of many movies.

Amitabh is known for his outstanding narration and have narrated many movies prominent ones being ‘Shatranj ke Khiladi’ of 1977, ‘Bawarchi’ in 1972,’Balika Badhu’ in 1975, ‘Tere Mere Sapne’ in 1996, ‘Hello Brother’ in 1999, ‘Lagaan’ of 2001, ‘Fun2shh…Dudes in the 10^th Century’ in 2003‘, ‘Parineeta’ in 2005,’ Swami’ in 2007, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ in 2008, ‘Zor lagaa ke..Haiya!’ in 2009,‘Ra One’ in 2011,’Kahaani’ in 2012, ‘Mahabharat’ & ‘Krrish 3’ in 2013, ‘Kochadaiiyaan’ in 2014, ‘The Ghazi Attack’ &’Firangi’ in 2017.

We may have missed a few as his career is one of the longest one and difficult one to track.

A Singer people love:

Not only Narration, Amitabh has sung songs in many movies started with Lawaris, Silsila, Mahaan, Toofan, Baghban, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Bhootnath, Mr.Natwarlal, Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap, Delhi 6, Aladin, Bol Bachchan Baabul to name a few.

His songs have been very popular and loved by the audience, ‘Shaava Shaav’ of ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’, ‘Holi Khere Raghuveera’ of ‘Baghban’ , ‘Rang Barse’ of Silsila and ‘Bbhudaah Hoga Tera Baap’ are among many that have touched every song lovers heart.

And it is the biggest irony of the entertainment industry that he was rejected by All India Radio when he applied for the job of a presenter right after his college and it was none other than ‘Ameen Sayaani-the voice of All India Radio for many decades’ who rejected him.

Magical Movie Journey:

Amitabh Bachchan has played more Double Roles than any other actor. His movies journey timeline a story in itself worth reading:

Amitabh got his first break same year he narrated ‘Bhuvan Shome’ and the movie was ‘Saat Hindustani’. He did ‘Parwana’ and ‘Anand’ in 1971 and in both the films Amitabh was not the main lead, it as Navin Nischal and Rajesh Khanna respectively. Amitabh was seen in 7 movies that were released in 1971 but he was playing among various characters and not as main lead.

He got his first break as lead hero with ‘Bombay to Goa’ produced and directed by Mehmood in 1972 which became a turning point in his career.

In 1972, Amitabh did 6 movies other than ‘Bombay to Goa’ and in 1973 ‘Zanjeer’ tuned Amitabh from a Bollywood Hero to ‘Angry Young Man’.

This film made Amitabh a household name that would be seen as the Angry Youn Man Hero of Bollywood in many movies every year with approximately 5-6 films per year till 1985.  After 1985, he started doing less number of films per year.

1975 was a remarkable year for Amitabh as 2 out of 7 movies that were released that year are remembered as the blockbusters of all time ‘Deewar’ and the ever green ‘Sholay’.

1976 was the year that created his mark as actor with multi star movie ‘Kabhi Kabhie’

1977 is known for his blockbuster ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ with Vinod Khanna & Rishi Kapoor. The movie created history with 25 filmfare awards and it was so successful that it was later made in Tamil as ‘Shankar Salim Simon’ in 1978, in Telgu as ‘Ram Robert Rahim’ in 1980 and as ‘John Jaffer Janardhanan’ in Malayalam in 1982. 

1978 was the iconic year for Amitabh as he gave 3 blockbuster each with a different flavour for the audience. ‘Don’ he played a double role and the movie is known for its action sequences and songs, ‘Trishul’ high action drama with outstanding dialogues and high on emotion ‘Muqaddar ka Sikandar’ which is still remembered for the songs sung by Kishore Kumar.

1981 again was a delight for Amitabh fans as Amitabh did a total of 9 movies this year and gave 5 memorable stories to relish namely ‘Kaalia’, ‘Laawaris’, ‘Naseeb’, ‘Yaarana’ and ‘Silsila’. All these movies have a distinct story telling style and Amitabh’s character in  each takes the viewer experience a notch higher.

Amitabh gave powerful performances in the 1982 movies ‘Shakti’ against Dilip Kumar, ‘Satte Pe Satta’ with his double role-one played the protagonist and other negative and ‘Desh Premee’ again with double role delight for the audience. This year was also the release of the Namak Halal which Amitabh took the comedy by the lead actor to another level.

Amitabh was clinically dead for couple minutes in 1983. He gave ‘Mahaan’ with triple role and ‘Pukar‘ in which he played negative role during the first half of the movie but what turned a new chapter in the life was the movie ‘Coolie’.

During the shoot of a fight sequence Amitabh met up with a severe accident and ended up with a internal abdomen injury & a coma like situation. The accident took place on 26 July 1983 and Amitabh resumed shooting on 7^th January 1983 after a long treatment. The movie was released in 2^nd December 1983 and became a huge success.

1984 saw the singing dancing partying Amitabh Bachchan with his most memorable movie-‘Sharaabi’. Every song of the movie was a super hit.

1985 was the year of ‘Mard’ and 1986 was the year of ‘Aakhree Raasta’ in which Amitabh played the role of both father and son.

Amitabh became ‘Shahenshah’ in the 1988 blockbuster and ‘Toofan’ in 1989.

1990 gave us Agneepath in which Amitabh played the role of a ‘Don’. He won his first National Film Award for his acting.

Amitabh gave ‘jumma chumma’ to the world in 1991 with his multi star movie ‘Hum’.

For next decade Amitabh stuggled with getting good scripts and acceptance from the audience and he came back with the bang in the year 2000 with Yash Chopra’s movie ‘Mohabattein’. This time he paired with Shah Rukh Khan but became the one to steal the lime light and love of audience.

Same year Amitabh took the route of Television and signed up to host the Indian version of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ with ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. First Season of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ premiered on 3 July 2000 and it gave Amitabh-a come back- that no actor can imagine. He was back as the most loved actor.

Amitabh gave his performance of a lifetime in the 2002 movie ‘Kaante’ and ‘Khakee’ in 2004.

In 2005 Amitabh won the second National Award for Acting for the film ‘Black’ and played against his son Abhishek Bachchan for the time in the movie ‘Bunty aur Babli’. Same year he gave an outstanding performance in the movie ‘Sarkar’.

In 2007, Amitabh did 2 movies that portrayed him as cool old man with a young heart. The movies were ‘Nishabd’ and ‘Cheeni Kam’.

‘Bhootnath’ in 2008 was full of world class acting and singing by Amitabh Bachchan which people loved.

The movie ‘Paa’ was his second successful association with son Abhishek which won Amitabh his 3^rd National Award in Acting in 2009.

Amitabh has not ventured out of Bollywood much yet he was seen in Special Appearance in his first ever Hollywood movie ‘The Great Gatsby’ in 2013.

2015 got him his 4^th National Award for Acting for the film ‘Piku’ and 2016 gave us his remarkable performance in the movie ‘Pink’.

Amitabh and Rishi Kapoor have delivered many blockbuster movies together and ‘102 Not Out’ in 2018 was the last movie that they played together in which Amitabh played Rishi Kapoor’s father.

Amitabh Bachchan was born on 11^th Oct 1942 and is still going strong with movies he is shooting in 2020 and the Television Show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ at the age of 78. He is definitely the Film Star of the Century.

His actual name was Inquilaab Srivastava however the family took his father’s pen name ‘Bachchan’ as surname and Amitabh replaced the first name Inquilaab with Amitabh

Wait for Part 2 of the ‘facts of Amitabh Bachchan-Shahenshah of Bollywood’

till then you can read the facts about the ‘Shahenshah of Hollywood’ here : https://factrivia.com/the-man-the-machine-arnold-schwarzenegger-has-been-actor-politician-sportsman-and-businessman-who-always-topped/