This gallant megastar, known as simply bachchan in the angry seventies, was born on October 11, 1942 as the older of the two sons of Harivansh Rai, the noted Hindi poet of his days. His mother was the famous socialite Teji Bachhan, who was an acclaimed lady in her discipline in those days. Being a scion of a highly educated, cultured family of the ancient city of Allahabad he had his full concentration on the aspects of study from the very commencement of his student days. Later he was sent to the Sherwood College, a boarding school in the hill-station town of Nainital. He then managed to get an admission in the discipline of Arts in the Delhi University. Though he was not an outstanding student by virtue of his performance, however he managed to retain his consistency well. It was at this juncture when he got interested in the films, though he was initially not, and in short time became an avid cinema buff! Owing to sheer luck bachchan got an opportunity to make his first appearance in the movie Saat Hindustani [Seven Indians], which though shattered at the box office, gave him even a bleak identity. But since bachchan was a person of different genre he did not deter and continued his struggle. Though his performance in Anand (1972) of Hrshikesh Mukherjee, in the role of a Bengali doctor earned critical acclaim, but his career graph happened to be at the same echelon. But the next films Zanjeer [Chains] and Deewar [Wall], true representation of the angry youth of the 70's provided bachchan a strong footing. With his tall and lean looks, Amitabh became emblematic of the new kind of action hero. Whereas his predecessors such as Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra played romantic roles, Amitabh introduced the motif of the 'angry young man' to Indian cinema, an unknown saga in the history of the Indian cinema. By and large he became an emblem of the aggrieved youth, student unrest and an uncertain future. His tough posture made him the darling of he common people, mostly of the young generation overnight. To be very precise his role of a mafia don idealized the underworld to certain extent!
From that period till date bachchan has acted in innumerable films, many of which have even crashed at the box office while many have been also with resounding successes. His popularity had the first acid test when during the shooting of the movie Coolie; bachchan injured himself fatally and had a near brush with death. No to speak of the common people, even the topmost political brass of the country used to pray for him and hordes of people used to stand on the road to have a glance of him! He also had a brief time in the political arena owing to his close association with Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and members of their family. But unfortunately his stint in politics did not last long and he was implicated in some scandals. Though he is at present in the height of a living legend he is still the no. 1 in the Indian cinema industry. The no. 2 though almost half of his age, is still miles behind.