BIG SCREEN HERO - FILTHY RICH MEGASTAR UNKNOWN TO MOST

WITH his flashy jacket, bold spectacles and silver goatee, he looks like the kind of guy you’d expect to see belting out show tunes in a Las Vegas nightclub.

This man is actually one of the best-paid actors on the planet, raking in more money than Hollywood luminaries Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Craig.
Last year, he even earned more than Russell
Crowe and Will Ferrell combined. But he only appeared in his first Hollywood film three years ago.

So who the heck is Amitabh Bachchan?
It turns out the man dubbed “The Big B” is actually a big bloody deal.
You might recognise the 72-year-old from his small but not insignificant role in Baz Luhrmann’s 2012 film The Great Gatsby as Meyer Wolfsheim, the shady father figure to DiCaprio’s Jay Gatsby.
While The Great Gatsby was his Hollywood debut, Bachchan is one of the biggest and most influential stars in Bollywood, having appeared in more than 180 Indian films over four decades — and he’s still in high demand.

 

As fans of Indian entertainment would well know (our apologies to the initiated), Bachchan is a heavyweight of the big screen in his native India. He is also known for his three-year stint as a member of parliament and for hosting the Indian adaptation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
His son Abhishek Bachchan, himself an actor and the husband of Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai, is among the first to sing his dad’s praises.

“He (Amitabh) comes once in a lifetime, that’s it,” he said, reported The Indian Express.
“It is better to accept and move on. He is like sun … Make your own minuscule space under the sun.”
Abhishek might be a tad biased, but everyone else seems to agree.

Fans actually offered to sacrifice their limbs for Bachchan’s recovery when he suffered a near-fatal injury on the set of the film Coolie in 1982.

Need further proof of Bachchan’s stature? There is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to his many awards, which includes the Padma Vibhushan — the second highest civilian award in India.
“Amitabh Bachchan has had a serious great influence on Indian pop culture and on me,” rising Bollywood star Ranveer Singh, 29, told the press earlier this year.

The Bachchan clan: Amitabh Bachchan (right) with his son Abhishek (left) and daughter-in-law Aishwarya (centre), both Bollywood stars in their own right. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

“He is an icon, a living legend in the truest sense. My earliest and fondest memories of engaging with Hindi cinema are all directly related to Amitabh Bachchan.
“My dadi (grandmother) used to say that I should grow up and become a hero like him.
“In coming years, I believe Bollywood will be defined as BB and AB — Before Bachchan and After Bachchan.”

Bachchan’s megastardom is even name-dropped in the film Slumdog Millionaire, when protagonist Jamal recalls scoring Bachchan’s autograph as a child in a crucial flashback.
While the man is undoubtedly talented, many say timing has had a lot to do with why Bachchan is now so highly revered — worshipped, almost — in India.

It started in 1975, with Bachchan’s early role in Sholay — which is considered to be one of the greatest Indian movies ever made — followed by a handful of other successful films that fuelled his meteoric rise to fame.

Working class hero: Amitabh Bachchan in his career-defining role in 1975’s Sholay. Source: News Corp Australia

At that time, India was in the midst of The Emergency, a controversial period of Indira Gandhi's prime ministership that saw unemployment, curtailed civil liberties and political purges sweep the country.

Bachchan’s films during this state of emergency were made for working class audiences and he always played the rebel, the underdog, the anti-establishment hero: an irresistible figure of hope and resistance against the injustices of the authority.

Hundreds of kilometres away, Bachchan was also becoming an inspiration for kids with Asian heritage in the UK.

Bachchan’s success only grew from there. He went from India’s original “angry young man” to an all-singing, all-dancing romantic and comedic star. Some of his most iconic films include Zanjeer (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975) and Amar Akbar Anthony (1977).

Things haven’t always been rosy for Bachchan. His decision to enter politics in the 1980s was a flop; he then turned his attention to the business world, and flopped there, too.
He returned to acting and he managed to resurrect his career. By 1999, he had been voted the biggest star of the millennium in a BBC Online poll.

Bachchan as Anant Srivastav in the film Khakee. Source: News Corp Australia

Today, Bachchan is one of the top 10 highest paid actors in the world, with an estimated earning of $US33.5 million ($A47.7 million).

In Forbes’ list of the highest paid male film stars, which for the first time this year includes international actors, Bachchan came in equal seventh, alongside fellow Indian actor Salman Khan.
Hollywood leading man Robert Downey Jr topped the list with a haul of $US80 million ($AU109 million), followed by Jackie Chan at $US50 million ($AU68 million) and Vin Diesel at $47 million ($AU64 million).

According to the list, which was released this week, A-listers Mark Wahlberg earns $US32 million ($A43.6 million), The Rock earns $US31.5 million ($A43 million) and Johnny Depp earns $US30 million ($A41 million).

And it’s impressive because while Bollywood is big business in India, it does not reap anywhere near the fortune of its LA-based counterpart.

“We make over 1000 films every year. Hollywood makes about 300, but Hollywood makes more money,” Bachchan told Time while promoting The Great Gatsby in 2012.
“That just shows the reach and the marketability. That’s something that we lack. We don’t know how to market our films.

Bachchan with fellow actors Siddharth Jadhav and Kashmira Kulkarni at the music launch of the film Dholki in Mumbai last week. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

“Now all the corporations are there in India. They’re co-producing films, they’re distributing them. I just feel that sooner or later the sheer potential of the demographics of India, which is 1.25 billion people, will eventually be very attractive to the entertainment industry.”

But what makes The Big B extra likable is his humility. The son of a poet, and himself a father of two, Bachchan frequently redirects praise back to the directors, writers, cast and crew who work on his films.

He told the International Business Times he didn’t understand the stardom that surrounded him.
“I’m just fine with whatever I have,” he said.

“What I do on film is part of my profession. I look upon it as a job and that’s about it. You do your work, you pack up, you go home. All the rest of this stuff is just peripheral. I never pay much attention to it.

“I’m just delighted to be a small part of this fraternity and this industry that I’m very proud of. I’m very lucky and very fortunate to have survived and to still be working after 45 years. I’m very thankful to directors and filmmakers who consider me in their films and I hope I’m able to do justice to their films. They’ve all been enjoyable.”