Born under the Libran sun sign, Amitabh Bachchan celebrates his birthday on 11 October. He was born in 1942 in Allahabad, as Amitabh Harivansh Srivastav to Dr.Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Teji Bachchan. His father was a well known poet. Bachchan was his pen name. When Amitabh entered the film industry he replaced Srivastav with Bachchan. He was initially christened Inquilab but this was later changed to Amitabh that means ‘limitless lustre’, which is so apt. Ajitabh is his younger brother.

Bachchan studied in Allahabad at Jnana Pramodhini and Boys High School. He also put in a few years at Sherwood College in Nainital and Kirori Mal College. He holds a double degree in M.A. He worked as a freight broker with Bird & Co, a shipping firm based in Kolkata which he quit to pursue acting, which paid off.

He married his co-star Jaya Bhaduri of the Guddi fame on 3 June 1973 and they have two children, Shweta and Abhishek. The latter is also an actor, married to Aishwarya Rai.

Bachchan’s unconventional looks – dark, lean, and standing tall at 6’2” - worked against him when it came to acting roles. But his deep voice, a trademark, held him in good stead with offers to work on narration and background commentary. In 1969, Bachchan made his debut with Saat Hindustani, which won him the National Film Award for Best Newcomer. After this came movies like Reshma Aur Shera, Parwana, and Anand in 1971. He made a huge impact with his performance in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand alongside Rajesh Khanna as a despondent doctor, winning the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. In 1972, he appeared in movies like Sanjog, Bansi Birju, Ek Nazar, and also narrated Bawarchi.His identity as the ‘angry young man’ took off in 1973 when he starred in movies like Zanjeer, Abhimaan, and Namak Haraam. Vijay went on to become a regular onscreen name. He starred in Mr.Natwarlal and also tried his hand for the first time in playback singing in this movie with the song Mere Paas Aao.

Bollywood started taking a backseat post 1984 due to his illness. This made him look towards politics. It was well known that Bachchan enjoyed a close association with the Gandhi family having grown up with Rajiv Gandhi. He won the Allahabad’s Lok Sabha seat with a high margin of 68%. His stint in politics was marred when he was accused in the Bofors scandal and was later proved innocent. He later deflected to friend Amar Singh’s Samajwadi Party.