Kevinspire

The Shahenshah Of Bollywood

By Kevin Rego

It’s just another morning in Juhu, a chic suburb in Mumbai in the month of July. The rain has chosen to stay away but the sun’s rays pour down with all their might. The cacophony of the traffic is deafening. However, it’s business as usual at Jalsa; a swanky bungalow housing India’s numero uno film star – Amitabh Bachchan, as hordes of people have gathered, hoping and praying to have a glimpse of India’s greatest actor.

Soaking wet in sweat, the fans are soon rewarded as the gates open and out swaggers the colossus in a spotless white kurta and pyjama. His hair is pitch black while his trademark white, sculpted beard carefully conceals the wrinkles as the 64-year-old smiles, a giant handshake extending his right palm for a hand shake. There’s joy in the faces of those fans and tears too as they lap it all up turning their mobiles into instant cameras.

Ten minutes later it’s all over. But they will be there the next day. A new lot of adoring fans from all over the country. It’s a ritual that has been going on for years.

Amitabh Bachchan is an exceptional star. He is Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Sean Connery rolled into one. For over 30 years he has strode imperiously in Indian cinema. He reigns. His towering personality, his rich baritone voice, his awesome screen presence is unmatched. No wonder then that the “Shahenshah” of Bollywood has managed to fend off contenders to his throne in all these three decades.

There’s more to Amitabh Bachchan than his gifted abilities. Those who know him in the industry swear by his punctuality on the sets of a film. His impeccable behavior, but subtle sense of humour, his youth-like enthusiasm with every film he does and his unflinching advice to the younger generation of actors. 16-year-old British-born actress Gita Khan who started with him in Nishabd is on record saying how he made her feel comfortable on the sets and remained patient as she fumbled dialogues with him. “Acting is all about reacting,” he has said to have told her.

Bachchan’s phenomenal success is perhaps a testimony to those who dream big. Armed with a graduate’s degree, he quit a job as a freight company executive at the age of 27 and landed in Mumbai’s shores. His parents – Harivanshrai and Teji Bachchan – were well-known in the literary and drama circles respectively. But Bollywood was hardly welcoming and Bachchan was forced to do the rounds of film studios in the hope of getting a break.

Eventually he did and made his debut in the film Saat Hindustani in 1970. His struggle, however, would continue as the film bombed and at 6’3” in height he was told that he was just too tall and lanky. Three years later he married Jaya Bhaduri after meeting her on the sets of R. K. Ishara’s Ek Nazar. But success was still eluding him.

Just when he began to question his talent, noted director Prakash Mehra, after noticing him in a fight scene in Bombay to Goa, offered him Zanjeer. The film revolved around a tough cop who takes on the bad guys. It not only catapulted him to fame but also fetched him the title “Angry Young Man.”

Amitabh Bachchan or Big B, as he was called, had arrived. There was Bachchan, the romantic one in Kabhi Kabhi, the intense actor in Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay, and the brooding hero in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand (1970). This time around, it was he who walked away with applause for his role in Namak Haraam (1973) by the same director.

By the time Sholay was released in 1975, he was already on the road to superstardom having revealed his acting prowess with a powerhouse of a performance in Yash Chopra’s Deewar earlier that year. Amar Akbar Anthony won him the Best Actor award in 1977 and he got another one the following year for his role in Don.

Bachchan was India’s Everest of cinema when calamity struck. In 1982, while shooting for Manmohan Desai’s Coolie, Bachchan had a serious accident. He suffered internal bleeding and was left fighting for his life. Almost the entire nation offered prayers to various Gods. Doctors had almost given up hopes. Somehow miraculously he recovered showing indomitable spirit.

He was to dig for that kind of spirit again in 1984 as he underwent surgery for diverticulitis. The entire nation once again held its breath while television and press reported hourly bulletins of his health. But the star recovered.

In 1984 Bachchan had decided to help his friend Rajiv Gandhi by joining politics and standing for elections on a Congress ticket. He won his seat in the lower house of parliament with a thumping margin from his home constituency in Allahabad. However, things would soon turn sour for the superstar.

His name appeared in the list of people who allegedly received kickbacks from the Bofors Swedish gun company.

Amitabh and his brother Ajitabh fought tooth and nail to clear their name and were acquitted. He had fought his way to another victory and vowed never to enter politics again. “Politics is dirty, it sparks attitudes that I don’t know anything about and that I will never comprehend,” was his take on it.

By the early 90s Bachchan decided to take a sabbatical and dabbled with the idea of forming a company. ABCL or Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited opened with major fanfare. The company distributed films, sponsored Miss Universe in 1996 and ended up biting off more than it could chew. The result was a disaster. According to Bachchan, “inept management and poor accountability” led to the company’s downfall. The debts ran into millions of pounds. Hounded by the media and of course his creditors, Bachchan had no hiding place. He returned to films.

However, there was no respite as his long absence had taken its toll and his movies failed at the box office. But his resilience once again came to the fore. He chose television. The Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was coming to India and Bachchan gambled by playing the anchor. It was an awesome decision.

Kaun Banega Crorepati wooed the audiences every night with millions tuning in to see Bachchan with his superb suits and chaste Hindi grill ordinary folk on their general knowledge. The success of KBC would mean a new innings for the king of comebacks. He succeeded in paying off all his debts and even his movie career was back on track after his stellar performance as a cantankerous patriarch in Mohabbatein with Shah Rukh Khan. “I would regard Mohabbatein and KBC as my resurrection,” he would later say.

At the turn of the century he was once again back in demand and the world was almost everywhere with king size cut-outs of him staring at you from every nook and corner in India as he endorsed numerous consumer products from Coca Cola to pens to banks and even had a perfume named after his pet.

He also started to play unusual roles with equal ease. From playing an ageing cop in Khakee to senior bank manager mentoring a small-town hobby writer in Ankhein, the actor showed his versatility. Hollywood soon followed with Mira Nair signing him alongside Johnny Depp.

He has been conferred with numerous awards including the Star of the Millennium by the BBC, an opinion poll beating the likes of Laurence Olivier, Charlie Chaplin and Marlon Brando. He became the first Indian film star to be immortalised in wax at Madam Tussauds. He has also been felicitated in Russia, South Africa, Morocco, Trinidad, Tobago, UK and USA.

With his son Abhishek now tasting success and daughter-in-law Aishwarya too, the entire family will go stage shows across the world next year in an attempt to cash in on their global status.

Critics still abound. His close friendship with Amar Singh, the opportunistic politician, who he says is like a younger brother is regularly scoffed at. The press also slaughtered him for the way he chose to handle his son’s wedding ceremony. He recently won a court verdict on a land acquisition case.

But none of this matters. His journey to super success has been littered with impediments. His achievements supersede all his failings. His triumph over constant inadequacies is proof of his remarkable character.

No doubt his name will be forever etched in the minds of every Indian film lover.

TRIVIA (from article sidebar)

HIS AFFAIRS (sidebar)

At the height of his career Bachchan was linked with Parveen Babi and Zeenat Aman. But it was the alleged affair with Rekha that the world still talks about. Though the two never really spoke about it publicly, the enigma surrounding their relationship has always intrigued audiences. Their films together included Do Anjaane (1976), Alaap (1977), Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Mr. Natwarlal (1979), Silsila (1980).*

But it was Silsila that raised eyebrows because the film depicted what many believed was their real-life relationship triangle.