50 Fun Facts About Amitabh Bachchan

Which actor played Veeru, the partner in crime of Bachchan's character in Sholay?

Dharmendra. He was in love with Hema Malini, who played Veeru's sweetheart Basanti, during the shoot, and the two later married.

What was the profession of Amitabh's father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan?

Hindi poet Harivansh Rai wrote as 'Bachchan'; asked for a surname when enrolling his son at school, he gave the pen name instead of his caste name, and the family kept it.

Born amid 1942's Quit India movement, Bachchan was nearly given which name?

Inquilaab, after the freedom slogan 'Inquilab Zindabad' (long live the revolution); the writer Sumitranandan Pant suggested Amitabh instead.

Which reality show did Bachchan host for a single season in 2009?

Bigg Boss. He fronted only its third season; Salman Khan took over the next year and became the show's long-running host.

From which Delhi University institution did Bachchan graduate with a science degree in 1962?

Kirori Mal College. Its drama teacher Frank Thakurdas, an English professor, urged him into the college plays; Bachchan later called him his mentor.

Which job did Bachchan famously fail to land in the late 1960s, before his film career began?

All India Radio newsreader. He failed the audition in Delhi, years before that deep baritone became the hallmark of his screen performances.

In which 1969 film did Bachchan make his on-screen acting debut?

Saat Hindustani. He played one of a band out to free Goa from Portuguese rule, but audiences had already heard him that year as the narrator of Bhuvan Shome.

For which 1971 film opposite Rajesh Khanna did Bachchan win his first Filmfare Award?

Anand. On the morning it opened nobody knew him at a petrol pump; when he went back that evening, people recognised him.

Which duo insisted the struggling Bachchan be cast as the lead in Zanjeer?

Salim-Javed pushed for him after bigger names had passed on the unsmiling inspector; one veteran star had wanted the hero to sing a few songs.

Which star took over Bachchan's double role in the 2006 remake of Don?

Shah Rukh Khan. Farhan Akhtar's remake kept the look-alike plot but changed the climax, and its success led to Don 2 in 2011.

Which actress did Bachchan marry in June 1973?

Jaya Bhaduri. She had stepped in as his heroine in Zanjeer for his sake after Mumtaz dropped out, and the film made him a star.

What was the name of Bachchan's character in Sholay (1975)?

Jaidev, better known as Jai, tricks his partner into fleeing to safety and dies holding off the bandits alone.

Who directed Deewaar (1975), with Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor as brothers on opposite sides of the law?

Yash Chopra. Rajesh Khanna had been lined up for the smuggler brother before the part went to Bachchan.

Which 1976 film cast Bachchan against type as a lovelorn poet?

Kabhi Kabhie. Its title song was a Sahir Ludhianvi poem that composer Khayyam had first recorded in 1950, for a film that was never finished.

Which character in a 1977 film about three separated brothers won Bachchan his first Filmfare Best Actor Award?

Anthony Gonsalves was named for a real Goan musician, the teacher of the film's co-composer Pyarelal, who wrote the hit song as a tribute.

In Don (1978), Bachchan played the gang leader and which look-alike?

Vijay. Producer Nariman Irani made Don to clear his debts, but died after a studio wall fell on him, months before it reached cinemas.

Which of Bachchan's films topped the box office in 1978?

Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. Filming a bar scene, Bachchan threw a glass that struck co-star Vinod Khanna on the chin; he took his friend to hospital for stitches and apologised to Khanna's wife.

In which 1979 film did Bachchan first use his own singing voice for a song?

It earned him nominations for both Best Actor and Best Male Playback Singer.

Bachchan's 1981 Bengali debut Anusandhan was shot simultaneously in Hindi under what title?

Barsaat Ki Ek Raat. In both versions Bachchan turns up in Darjeeling's tea country as a mysterious stranger, and only after taking on the local thug is he revealed as a police officer.

On the set of which film did Bachchan suffer a near-fatal injury on 26 July 1982?

Coolie. A table corner ruptured his spleen in a fight scene with Puneet Issar, and the finished film freezes on that frame with a caption marking the moment.

How did Manmohan Desai respond to Bachchan's 1982 on-set accident?

He changed the ending so the character lived: the script had the hero shot dead, but after Bachchan's real brush with death Desai would not kill him on screen.

After his 1982 accident, Bachchan was diagnosed with which illness?

Myasthenia gravis. With the muscle-weakening disease keeping him at home, director Manmohan Desai came to visit and promised to seat him in a wheelchair and give him a silent role.

Which constituency did Bachchan win in the 1984 Lok Sabha election?

Allahabad, his birthplace. The political novice beat Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, a former chief minister of the state, then gave up the seat within three years.

Which scandal linked to brother Ajitabh prompted Amitabh Bachchan to quit parliament in 1987?

Bofors. A newspaper tied his brother to the arms-deal payoffs; Ajitabh later won libel damages, and the Swedish police chief who led the inquiry cleared the family.

Bachchan won his first National Film Award for Best Actor for playing a Mafia don in which 1990 film?

Agneepath. The film lost money on release despite the award, and only later grew into a cult favourite.

Bachchan's company ABCL lost millions sponsoring which 1996 event in Bangalore?

The Miss World pageant drew protests over a perceived culture clash, and when ABCL could not pay its dues afterwards the company slid into bankruptcy.

Which 2000 film, offered after Bachchan went to a director friend asking for work, relaunched his career?

Mohabbatein. Deep in debt, he told an old collaborator that nobody was giving him work; the stern headmaster he was handed won him a Filmfare Award.

Kaun Banega Crorepati moved to Sony in 2010; on which channel had Bachchan launched it in 2000?

Star Plus cut the show's second season short in 2006, when Bachchan fell ill with two dozen episodes still to film.

In Black (2005), Bachchan played an ageing teacher of a girl with which condition?

Deaf-blindness. Late in the film the teacher develops Alzheimer's disease, and the pupil he once taught to communicate sets out to help him remember.

Sarkar (2005), in which Bachchan starred with son Abhishek, was an adaptation of which Hollywood film?

The Godfather. Director Ram Gopal Varma admits the debt in the opening credits, and moved the story to present-day Mumbai.

In Paa (2009), Bachchan played a schoolboy with which condition?

Progeria, a rare genetic condition that makes children look far older. In a neat reversal, his real-life son Abhishek played the boy's father.

Bachchan's Hollywood debut came in which 2013 film?

The Great Gatsby. He appeared briefly as the gambler Meyer Wolfsheim, and worked for free as a favour to director Baz Luhrmann.

In Piku (2015), Bachchan played a grumpy father obsessed with what ailment?

Chronic constipation. His hypochondriac Bhashkor traces every problem to his bowels, then drags his daughter all the way to Kolkata to stop the sale of the family home.

In Pink (2016), Bachchan played what kind of professional?

A retired lawyer. Deepak Sehgal, who lives with bipolar disorder, returns to court to defend three young women after one of them fights off an assault.

Which 2018 film reunited Bachchan with Rishi Kapoor after 27 years?

102 Not Out. His lively 102-year-old threatens to pack his gloomy 75-year-old son off to an old age home unless he learns to enjoy life.

Bachchan took his first full Telugu role, the immortal warrior Ashwatthama, in which 2024 film?

Kalki 2898 AD. His Ashwatthama is the Mahabharata warrior cursed by Krishna to wander the earth until he protects the mother of the god Kalki.

Which Satyajit Ray film did Bachchan narrate in 1977?

Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Ray's only full-length Hindi feature, has Bachchan's voice telling how the British took Awadh while two noblemen sat playing chess.

In a 1999 BBC online poll for the greatest star of stage or screen, Bachchan pushed which actor into second place?

Laurence Olivier. Bachchan won by a wide margin, and the same vote put Homer Simpson fifth, ahead of Robert De Niro and Marilyn Monroe.

India's highest cinema honour, awarded to Bachchan in 2018, is named after whom?

He had already received the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan.

Director François Truffaut summed up Bachchan's hold on Hindi cinema with which phrase?

One-man industry. Such was his standing that when he was badly hurt on set in 1982, thousands of fans kept vigil outside the hospital.

Which London attraction unveiled a likeness of Bachchan in 2000?

Madame Tussauds. Bachchan was the first Bollywood star in its London gallery, and in 2016 its team came back to remeasure him and ask for his own clothes and glasses to refresh the figure.

Bachchan entered politics in 1984 to support which old family friend?

Rajiv Gandhi. The families were so close that Sonia Gandhi lived with Bachchan's parents for weeks before her wedding to Rajiv.

Bachchan was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2002 for which campaign?

Polio eradication. In the ads he scolded parents for staying away from vaccination booths, and mothers who then turned up said they came because 'Amit ji has become angry'.

Which actress did Bachchan's son Abhishek marry?

Aishwarya Rai. After films together including Guru, the pair married in 2007 in a private ceremony at the family home that the press covered heavily all the same.

For Khuda Gawah, Bachchan filmed in which country during its civil war, escorted by government tanks?

Afghanistan. President Najibullah, a devoted fan of Hindi films, had the unit treated as state guests, and the producer says the film later packed Kabul cinemas for ten weeks.

Which 2001 film opens with Bachchan as its unseen narrator?

Lagaan. His voice sets the scene in 1893, in a drought-hit village whose farmers stake three years of tax on a cricket match against British officers.

In the early 1980s Bachchan lent his likeness to which comic-book superhero?

Supremo. Gulzar is credited with the early scripts, in which the star's alter ego fights crime with two boy sidekicks named after his screen roles and a scout falcon.

Which film marked Bachchan's comeback after a three-year break for politics?

Shahenshah. He played a bribe-taking inspector by day and a vigilante by night; in 2023 he gave the costume's steel-armed jacket to a friend in Saudi Arabia.

In 2023 Bachchan gifted his Juhu bungalow Prateeksha to which family member?

His daughter Shweta. Prateeksha was his first Juhu home, shared with his parents, and it was his father who named it, with a phrase about welcoming all and awaiting no one.

Bachchan made his Malayalam debut in 2010's Kandahar opposite which superstar?

Mohanlal. When he and the director came to discuss payment, Bachchan refused a fee for three days' work, citing his admiration for his co-star.