One such actor who fought and proved his talent and still contributing to Cinema today is Amitabh Bachchan. He is one of the few actors who is acting for a millennium
Amitabh Bachchan was born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, on October 11, 1942. His mother, Teji Bachchan, was a Sikh, while his father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, was a famous Awadhi dialect-Hindi poet. Amitabh was originally given the moniker Inquilaab, which was a play on the word Inquilab Zindabad, which was a catchphrase during the Indian independence fight and meaning “Long live The Revolution.” As suggested by his friend and fellow poet Sumitranandan Pant, Harivansh later changed the name to Amitabh, which means “The Light That Will Never Die.” Despite having Shrivastava for a last name, Amitabh’s father chose the pen name Bachchan, which he eventually utilized as his stage name. Amitabh graduated from University of Delhi’s Kirori Mal College.
Amitabh Bachchan faced numerous physical and financial hardships before he rose to fame as the millennium’s biggest star. These difficulties can break anyone to pieces. The journey that Amitabh Bachchan took from being a complete unknown to being Bollywood’s biggest hero is extremely motivating for everyone who is battling through life and wants to do something amazing.
Amitabh Bachchan was rejected by mainly because of two things
One was him being 6’3 and had no confidence in him. He also auditioned for the ALL INDIA RADIO, as a radio jockey and was rejected.
Amitabh’s family supported his intention to pursue acting, and his mother Teji played a role in this decision. Amitabh should “take the center stage,” she used to advise. This is due to the fact that his mother had a strong interest in theater and was offered a role in a feature film, but she decided to take care of the household.
Bachchan’s first debut was as a voice narrator in the National award winning movie “Bhuvan Shome (1969)” directed by Mrinal Sen.
He gave up because he was broke and received his first break in Bollywood with the film Saat Hindustani, for which he also won a national award, shortly after. Following the success of this film, he battled for two years to land a part in Anand and Zanjeer, which completely transformed his life.
Nobody promised that life would be simple. Big B was steadily moving up the ladders of success when he had an accident on the Coolie set, which caused everyone to fear that Amitabh Bachchan would not survive. But he is a natural survivor since he bounced back quickly and resumed his acting career. Unfortunately, this accident caused him to get an illness that makes a person feel depressed and weak, and he is still battling it. Since then, he has developed into the Shahenshah of Bollywood and one of India’s wealthiest actors.
After a long gap, Amitabh started doing roles in 1988, where his movie “Shahenshah” released and became a box office hit. But his movies, like “Jaadugar“, “Toofan” and “Main Azaad Hoon” (all released in 1989) failed at the box office. After the release of “Khuda Gawah” in 1992, Bachchan went to semi-retirement for a period of five years. He got a National Award for his role as mafia Don in the movie “Agneepath (1990)“.
Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL), his production firm, was founded by Bachchan while he was still working. “Tere Mere Sapne (1971)” was his debut movie, and it was moderately successful. Although ABCL lost millions, it was the primary contributor to the Bangalore 1996 Miss World pageant. The business finally failed due to its repeated failures.
After losing everything, he went to the house of his friend Yash Chopra and asked for a role in his upcoming movie called “Mohabbatein”. After this, he also received a call for hosting “Kaun Banega Crorepati” for which his wife Jaya Bachchan said that it will not be good for a silver screen star like Amitabh Bachchan to be the host on a TV show. Amitabh Bachchan replied to her by saying “beggars can’t be choosers”.
What we learn from him:
“Bad luck either destroys you or makes you the man or woman you really are,” Amitabh reportedly remarked. His diligence and perseverance were what made him successful. His height and voice, which formerly caused him to be turned down, have now become the cornerstones of his enormous fortune and acclaim.
He acknowledged his shortcomings, which enabled him to keep becoming better. He stated that “it is important to accept and learn from your mistakes as it will make you a better person” in one of his interviews. The lesson that everyone of us must take away from Amitabh Bachchan’s life in order to attain great success in life is that we must never dwell on our mistakes but rather always learn from them.
Change is the nature of life, but challenge is the aim of life. So always challenge the changes not change the challenges – Amitabh Bachchan