Amitabh Bachchan was born in the city of Allahabad, India. His father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, was a well-known poet of Urdu and Hindi. The original last name of the family is "Srivastava"; "Bachchan" was in fact a pen name used by his father. However, when Bachchan entered films he did so under his father's pen name. Now he is never known as anything but Amitabh Bachchan. His immediate family has also adopted the Bachchan surname. His mother is Teji Bachchan, who is a Sikh born in Punjab, India. His father is a Hindu Kayastha from Uttar Pradesh, hence popularly known as a UPite.

Bachchan attended Allahabad's Boys' High School, followed by Nainital's Sherwood College, where he gained a degree in art. He later went on to study at Kirori Mal College in Delhi University earning a degree in science. When he was in his twenties, Bachchan gave up a job as freight broker for the shipping firm, Bird and Co., based in Kolkata, to pursue a career in acting.

He is married to actress Jaya Bhaduri (now Bachchan). The couple have two children: daughter Shweta and son Abhishek. Abhishek Bachchan has also entered the Bollywood film industry.

Bachchan is said to have met Jaya Bhaduri at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) at Pune[1], [2], though there is no evidence to confirm that he was ever enrolled there as a student.

In 1984, Bachchan briefly entered politics in support of long-time family friend Rajiv Gandhi. He contested Allahabad's Parliament seat against H. N. Bahuguna, a well-known politician, and won by a large margin (68.2% of the vote).^[1] His political career, however, was short-lived: he resigned after only three years, not finishing his term. At the time of his resignation, it was rumoured that he might have been involved in the Bofors Scandal. Bachchan was not implicated in the case, and has since distanced himself from the Gandhi family. He denies that the two events were connected, commenting that he "should have never got into politics".

In November 2005, Bachchan was admitted to India's Lilavati Hospital,[3] in order to undergo surgery on his intestine. The procedure came after Bachchan complained of pain in his abdomen. After the operation, Bachchan took several months off from work, unable to leave his home even to shoot the sequel to his recently-launched television program, Kaun Banega Crorepati 2. By April 2006 Bachchan had resumed shooting for most of his projects

Early career

Bachchan's first film, Saat Hindustani, his only black-and-white film, was released in 1969. In this film he played a Muslim poet. The film was not a success at the box office and he went unnoticed. However for his second film Anand he won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance.

He went on to appear in films such as Reshma Aur Shera, playing a mute man (1971), and Parwaana (1971), where he played a psychopath, but neither of these films established him as a celebrity.

Bachchan's first box office success came in 1973 when director Prakash Mehra cast Bachchan in the film Zanjeer. The film was a cops-and-robbers melodrama which helped establish Amitabh's persona as an "angry young man" and was the first major hit of his career. Bachchan then had at least one major hit every year for the next decade. Some of his hit films included Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Trishul (1978), Kaala Patthar (1979) and Shakti (1982) which further cemented his image as an "angry young man."

In addition to being an "angry young man", he also become known for his comedy roles in hit films such as Chupke Chupke (1975) and Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and romantic roles in films such as Kabhie Kabhie (1976) and Silsila (1981).

While filming Coolie in 1982, Bachchan was seriously injured during the filming of a fight scene with co-star Puneet Issar.[4]. He was in the hospital with a ruptured intestine for months, and at times was close to death. A remarkable outpouring of support and concern by his fans and the nation in general followed. After recovery Bachchan resumed the shooting for Coolie, and it finally released and was a huge success owing to its pre-release over-rated publicity.[5]

The director, Manmohan Desai altered the ending for Coolie after Bachchan's accident. Bachchan's character was originally intended to have been killed off but after the change of script, the character lived in the end. It would have been inappropriate, said Desai, for the man who had just fended off death in real life to be killed on screen as well. Also, remarkably, in the released film the footage of the fight scene is frozen at the critical moment, and a caption appears onscreen marking this as the instant of the actor's injury to encash the pre-release over-rated publicity of the accident episode.[6]

During the late 1980s, after his brief stint in politics, Bachchan's films became less successful. Many films did very poorly, such as Jaadugar and Toofan, both from 1989. His 1991 film Hum did well, but later films also suffered at the box office. Starting in 1992, after the release of Khuda Gawah, he took a break from the film industry.

He returned to films in 1997, but for a year or so, hits still eluded him. His first comeback vehicle, Mrityudaata produced by his own production company ABCL, was a box-office disaster.[7]Subsequent films, such as Major Saab (1997), Sooryavansham (1999), and Lal Baadshah (1999) also failed at the box office.

The first two of his comeback films to succeed were the 1998 comedy Bade Miyan Chote Miyan[8] in which he starred with Govinda, and 2000's Mohabbatein[9], which co-starred Shah Rukh Khan.

Bachchan then accepted an television offer to host an Indian version of the popular British game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, or Kaun Banega Crorepati?. The show was a hit, to the point that the Theatre Owner's Association president requested it be aired in the morning, as it was seriously cutting into theatre attendance on the four nights per week it was aired.^[2]

Two films that followed, in which he appeared as a stern patriarch, Ek Rishta (2001) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), were both box office hits and Bachchan regained his old fame

He has since appeared in a number of films each year, sometimes in unconventional or supporting roles. He has been praised for his performances in films such as Aks (2001)[10], Aankhen (2002)[11]Baghban(2003)[12], Khakee (2004)[13] and Dev [14]

In 2005, he appeared in the film Black, in which he played the driven, eccentric teacher of a deaf and blind student played by Rani Mukherjee. In the same year he co-starred for the first time with his son Abhishek in the comedy Bunty Aur Babli and the Godfather-esque crime drama Sarkar both of which were hits at the box office.[15] He once again appeared with Abhishek, playing a sex-obsessed father in the newly-released Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (2006).