MUMBAI: Zee Muzic will celebrate Big B’s birthday on 11 October with special programmes all through the day.
Amitabh Bachchan was the only Indian actor to have won the best actor award at the age of 63 and the only Indian voted as the ‘Star of the Millennium’ on BBC online.
As he turns 64 on 11 October, 2006 Zee Muzic will celebrate the actor’s big day with special programmes. Ek Ke Baad Ek will have back-to-back songs of Amitabh Bachchan all evening. On the other hand, Cinemascope will take viewers through a host of celebrity wishes, talking about Amitabh, his movies and his songs.
B Cube — Bachchan Birthday Blast, a special one hour show hosted by Amit Tandon will also be aired. Tandon will regale viewers with Bachchan trivia and his top songs.
On Bollywood Tonight, host Amruta will take viewers through a segment, where a host of stars wish the legendary actor on his birthday.
Bachchan, the son of Harivansh Rai Bachchan, attended Sherwood College in Nainital and the University of Delhi. He worked as a business executive in Calcutta (Kolkata) and performed in theatre before embarking on a film career. Bachchan made his big-screen debut in Saat Hindustani (1969) and achieved his first success with Zanjeer (1973).
A string of action films followed, including Deewar (1975), Sholay (1975), and Don (1978). Nicknamed “Big B,” Bachchan personified a new type of action star in Indian films as the angry young man, rather than the romantic hero.
By the end of the 1970s, Bachchan had appeared in more than 35 films and was regarded as India’s top film star. A near-fatal accident on the set of his film Coolie in 1982 touched off a national prayer vigil for his recovery. His subsequent films, however, did poorly at the box office. In 1984 he was elected to India’s parliament by an overwhelming majority, but he resigned his seat in 1989 after being implicated in a bribery scandal that toppled Gandhi’s government.
Bachchan returned to films and won the National Award for his portrayal of a mafia don in Agneepath (1990). He later headed Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd. (ABCL), an entertainment venture that specialized in film production and event management. The business was plagued by financial difficulties, however, and Bachchan eventually returned to performing. In 2000 he began hosting the television game show Kaun Banega Crorepati. Since then there has been no looking back for the Big B.
