By: Smitha Nambiar
Friday, February 10, 2006

"Pain is my destiny and I can't avoid it". This is nothing, but one of the famous dialogue by Amitabh Bachchan from the film Kaala Patthar. Like the dialogue, Big B's life has been full of pain-but pain that helped him evolve as an actor and grow to be a truly spectacular human being. The son of poet Harivansh Rai and Teji Bachchan rode the Indian film industry like a colossus for close to three decades.

Amitabh Bachchan, who was voted once as the millennium's "greatest star of stage or screen" in a BBC online poll was the first Indian film star to be immortalized in wax at 'Madame Tussauds' museum in London. Off late, one of Amitji's close friends, Anwar Ali (Mehmood's brother) surprised him with a book on their friendship called 'Amitabh and I'. Both began their career together with Saat Hindustani.

Recently, when he was shooting for Anil Sharma's Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon, he read in the papers that farmers in Andhra Pradesh were committing suicide for loans for very small amounts of money. Bachchan was so overwhelmed that he donated Rs. 1.1 million to the farmers. This money has paid off 42 Andhra Pradesh farmers. Amitabh Bachchan has definitely come a long way.

Not many years ago, Big B had started Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited, a commercial enterprise, engaged in all aspects of the movie industry. Inspite of releasing many note-worthy films, the company experienced severe loss and fell into the league of 'bankruptcy'. Count down had begun for this mega-star...atleast that was the buzz in Bollywood. Amazingly, Amitabh came back with astounding energy in the year 2000 with 'Kaun Banega Karodpati'-a game show on the same lines of 'Who wants to be a Millionaire'; a popular show in the US that had millions glued to the television set. It was a sensation!

Childhood and youth