Amitabh Bachchan was born on October 11, 194, in the city of Allahabad, India. His father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, was a well-known poet of Urdu and Hindi. Amitabh Bachchan attended Allahabad's Boys' High School, and the prestigious Sherwood School, Nainital, and graduated from Kirorimal College, Delhi.His first ever job was in a company called Shaw Wallace. He also worked as a freight broker for a shipping firm, named Bird and Co, drawing a four-figure salary and languishing in the club lands of Calcutta.
Bachchan's acting career began in 1969, his first film is Saat Hindustani, his only black-and-white film. Bachchan favourite screen name is Vijay (Deewar, Zanjeer, Shakti) and favourite screen profession was to play a cop (Zanjeer, Ram Balram, Bade Miya Chote Miya, Aks)
While shooting for a fight sequence in Manmohan Desai's Coolie, Amitabh was knocked down by the film's villain Puneet Issar, due to bad timing, seriously injuring him. August 2 is regarded as the day when he got a new lease of life.
Amitabh Bachchan's wife name is Jaya Bachchan. Jaya Bhaduri was also an actress, and they met when she was in Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) at Pune. The couple have two children: daughter Shweta and son Abhishek. Abhishek Bachchan has also entered the Bollywood film industry.
Amitabh Bachchan was a good friend of late Rajiv Gandhi. In 1984, Bachchan contested Allahabad's Parliament seat against H. N. Bahuguna and won the election with huge margin. However he resigned his MP seat after 3 years ending his political carrier.
Amitabh Bachchan is a vegetarian, who loves to gorge on simple food, like aloo puri, pakodas, dhoklas and parathas.
Besides making a hit jodi with the likes of Jaya Bhadhuri, Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Raakhee, Parveen Babi and Sridevi, Big B made a smashing pair with Dharmendra (Ram Balram, Sholay, Chupke Chupke), Vinod Khanna (Muqqadar Ka Sikander, Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish) and Shashi Kapoor (Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila, Deewar, Shaan, Trishul).
It was during the making of Sholay that Amitabh discovered he was going to be the proud father of his first-born, Shweta.
Son Abhishek may be similar in looks, but daughter Shweta is temperamentally similar to her father, according to Jaya.
For someone who is not a professional singer, Amitabh has sung quite a few hit songs. Witness: Mere Angne Mein (Laawaris), Rang Barse (Silsila), Mere Paas Aao (Mr Natwarlal) and Tu Maike Mat Jaiyo (Pukar) to name a few.
He has a replica of himself sculpted and displayed at Madame Tussad's wax museum in London, placing him in the historical and entertainment Hall of Fame.
Amitabh Bachchan was one of the first to come up with a music album AB Baby for his music company Big B music. He even appeared in an imaginatively shot video by Rakesh Mehra called Eir Bir Phatte, which was an instant hit.
BBC Online voted him Star of the Millennium, above Hollywood greats. A trendsetter, Amitabh Bachchan made a path breaking entry in the world of television with the Indian remake of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire -- Kaun Banega Crorepati. Going by the astounding success of the show, a good move by the savvy Bachchan.
Amitabh tried his hand at politics in 1984. He won the Allahabad Parliamentary seat on a Congress ticket by a whooping number of votes.
AB loves gorging on gulab jamuns, especially from Jhama's in Chembur, Bombay.
