More than four decades, and counting, and yet we’re not tired of him. That speaks of the legacy of Amitabh Bachchan!
One of the things that Amitabh Bachchan, fondly known as the Big B, is famous for is his deep baritone voice. Therefore, it is even more coincidental that Amitabh Bachchan started his career in cinema with a narration part in ‘Bhuvan Shome’. Only after that, did he become one of the ‘Saat Hindustani’ which is his debut film in Bollywood.
That deep baritone voice and his tall features would be something that would dominate the screen for years to come. Be it the Angry Young Man in movies like ‘Sholay’, ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Deewaar’, ‘Kaalia’, or comedies like ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’, ‘Chupke Chupke’ or romance films like ‘Silsila’.
Amitabh Bachchan experienced a slump initially in the eighties when he stepped into politics but he also won his first National Award after returning from politics for his role in ‘Agneepath’. There was another slump in the nineties. But Aditya Chopra’s ‘Mohabbatein’ set him on the right path and there has been no looking back since then.
The Big B has also made his presence felt on television. People tune into ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ just to see Amitabh Bachchan. In the first few seasons, roads would be empty when the show would air on TV. Sure that doesn’t happen now, but that’s only because many stars are on TV now, but remember that Amitabh Bachchan started it!
2013 will be his 71st birthday, but the (not-so) Angry Young Man still doesn’t slow down. We like that in our thespian. French director Francois Truffaut once called the Amitabh Bachchan of the seventies and the eighties as a “one-man industry”. We think he would say the same of him even now.
Happy birthday, Amitabh!
