Amitabh Bachchan's family name is actually Srivastava. Bachchan is the nom de plume his father, Dr. Harivansh Rai adopted and passed onto AB. Incidentally, even his first name: Amitabh, was not the original choice as his father was bent on naming him 'Inquilaab', meaning revolution.
Amitabh Bachchan used to work as a shipping executive in the Calcutta Harbor before coming to Bombay to become an actor.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali wanted to cast Amitabh for Khamoshi.He wants to
make a movie now with the bigB on the lines of King Lear or Scent
of a woman.
Anand was made in twenty days flat.
Amitabh, Ajitabh and Jaya owned a pharmaceutical company called IPCA
laboratories .
Amitabh loves snacking on bourbon biscuits and cashew nuts.
Amitabh also has a sweet tooth. His favorite are the gulab jamuns
from Jhamas at Chembur,Mumbai.
A two page article in The illustrated weekly of India on the don
Haji Mastan inspired the classic Deewar.
Amitabh was born on a sunday, his first film was released on sunday
and was married to Jaya also on asunday.
Amitabh's costumes in Mohabbatein are designed by Karan Johar.
During the shooting of Dewaar ,Amitabh knotted his shirt because it
was too long.This eventually became a craze and a fashion.
Amitabh did his schooling at Sherwood college at Nainital and college
at Kirori Mal ,New Delhi.
Prakash Mehra had turned down the script of Sholay because he was
busy with Zanjeer.
Amitabh known for his baritone acted as a dumb person in Reshma aur
Shera.
The voices of all voices ,Amitabh Bachchan was ironically rejected
by All India Radio.
Amitabh has played a villain in Parwana and Gehri Chaal.
The scene in Sholay where Jai goes to Mausi for Veeru's proposal was
actually based on a real life situation where writer Salim had gone
to plead Javed's case with Honey Irani's(Javed's ex wife) mother.
Amitabh means horizon(boundary less) in sanskrit
Bachchan is his dad's pen name.Actually they are Srivastav's.
Amitabh has been synonymous with the name Vijay or Amit in most of
his movies
The mirror sequence in Amar Akbar Anthony was directed by Amitabh
himself as Manmohan Desai was unwell during the shoot.
Amitabh used to do most of the stunts himself but went slow after the
accident during the sets of coolie.In fact he was clinically declared
dead after the fatal accident and was a miracle how he sprang back
to life.
He is a strict vegeteranian..
He likes playing table tennis and plays the sitar sometimes.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee is his favourite director.
Amitabh has two bunglows in Mumbai-Prateeksha and Mansa.
Chuma Chuma de de was inspired by an african number which Amitabh
heard during his visit to England.Laxmikant pyarelal included strains
of the original in Agneepath and adapted it later for HUM.
Amitabh has paired successfully with Vinod Khanna,Rishi Kapoor,Shashi
Kapoor,Nirupa Roy ,Rakhee,Rekha ,Parveen Babi,Amjad Khan and Pran.
Mr. India,King Uncle,Allarakha,Lamhe,Meri Jung ,Misson Kashmir were
written with Amitabh in mind but were made with other stars
subsequently.
AB is left handed but writes right.
AB dad Harivanshrai wanted to name him Inquilaab but later zeroed
down on the name Amitabh.
It was Dharamendra who recommended Amitabh for Sholay.
Raj Kumar was almost signed for Zanjeer in the lead role.
Amitabh burnt his hand bursting crackers on diwali day some years
back. In fact in the film Inquilaab he wraps a towel to hide the
scars which can be seen even today.
During the height of his popularity ,a girl once fell ill and was
unconscious. She however uttered the word Anthony-the character
Amitabh played in Amar Akbar Anthony. The Big B had to personally
visit here to bring here out of unconsciousness.
Amitabh uses a customized fully equipped van for all his shoots. I
believe Small B also has a similar van of his own. Like father like
son.
The bigB has a fancy for wrist watches.
AB has acquired the traditional Indian qualities from his UPite
father and the western qualities from his Sikh mother.
The now commercially viable and popular overseas star shows was
pioneered by AB along with Kalyanji Anandji when they toured the
US/UK and the West Indies in the eighties.
AB use to apply soorma in his eyes as part of his make-up.
AB likes to dub for his movies preferably early morning.
Guddi was initially suppose to have AB as Jaya's co-star but was
subsequently replaced by bengali star Samit Bhanja.
During the height of his popularity , a monthly comic book for
kids called "SUPREMO"( a la Superman) penned by Gulzar was
published .
The Amtabh starrers which were inspired by hollywood hits
A star is born( 1954)-Abhimaan
Arthur(1980)-Sharaabi
Meet John Doe(1941)-Main azad hoon
Seven brides for seven brothers(1954)-Satte Pe Satta
The man who knew too much(1934)-Benaam
The desperate hours(1955)-Faraar
Amitabh and Jaya have acted in a Marathi movie in a very special
appearance. This movie was made by his make-up man Sawant.
The song Saara Zamana from the film Yaarana was shot in the Netaji
Subhash Chandra stadium ,Calcutta with actual live audience.
Ganga Jamuna Saraswati initially had Amitabh,Mithun and Rishi Kapoor
and a different script.
Mahaan the triple role AB starrer was a remake of the Kannada movie
Shankar Guru staring Dr. Rajkumar.
Akhree Raasta was a remake of the Kamalhassan tamil movie Oru
kaidiyan dairy.
Inquilaab was again a remake of a kannada movie Chakravyuha starring
Ravichandran.
Amitabh acted in Ajooba totally on goodwill without charging Shashi
Kapoor.
Shatrughan Sinha was a strong contender for the role of Jai in
Sholay.
Amitabh considers Asrani (in his earlier movies) as the most natural
actor he has come across.
Sholay was shot at Ramnagaram on the Mysore- Bangalore highway.
Mard was shot in Mysore.
Coolie again was largely shot in Bangalore.
The character of Anthony was a take-off on a person whom Manmohan
Desai knew in Khetwadi,Mumbai where MD lived.
Shashi Kapoor wanted to cast Amitabh in Utsav .The role was
eventually done by Shashi himself.
Prakash Mehra wanted to make a film called Kayar with AB which was
shelved.
Amitabh is another name of Gautam Budhha meaning immeasureable light..
Satyajit Ray used Amitabh's voice for the opening scene in Shatranj
Ke Khiladi.Amitabh's voice has also been used in the JP Dutta movies
namely Ghulami and Batwara.More recently Amitabhs baritone has also
been used in the opening scenes of the forthcoming Aaamir Khan movie
Lagaan.
Subhash Ghai had signed AB for Devaa.This film was abandoned midway
after canning a few reels. In fact Laxmikant Pyarelal even recorded a
sure shot hit number in the voice of Ila Arun for this film. Ghai
then wanted to make this movie with Shatrughan Sinha. AB meanwhile
cleverly used the getup of Devaa for Badshah Khan in Khuda Gawah.
Does anyone in the group know why Devaa was shelved????
In the film Namak Haram it was undecided as to who would die in the
end AB or RK.AB was of the opinion that he should die whereas RK felt
he should die. Finally the bigger star called the shots and RK was
shown dying in the movie. Ironically it was the beginning of the end
of RK from superstardom. AB's angry young man performance went very
well with the audience and then followed all those great scripts.
The movie King Uncle was written with AB in mind.Even the songs which
were eventually filmed on Jackie Shroff were sung by Sudesh Bhosle in
the Amitabh voice.
Prakash Mehra made Gunghroo with Shashi Kapoor and Smita Patil.
Amitabh was originally planned for Shashi's role.
Even during the peak of his career Amitabh has been an epitome of
professionalism especially punctuality. In fact at times he has
reached even before the studio doors were opened.
The same Manmohan Desai who made several hits with AB had earlier
rejected him because he had a face like that of a horse .MAN did not
know then, that apna Amitabh was no ordinary ghoda but lambiiiiiiii
race ka Ghoda.
SHOLAY TRIVIA
------------------
* The Original ending of Sholay (one which was actually SHOT but
subsequently abondoned by Ramesh Sippy) had Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar)
killing Gabbar Singh by crushing him with his spiked boots! After he
kills Gabbar, Thakur breaks down and starts sobbing....That would
have made a better ending IMO!
* Amitabh lobbied for Jay's character by asking Dharmendra to support
his cause. Dharmendra incidentally was the biggest star of that time.
Shatrughan Sinha was also a contender for Jay's role.
* Ramesh Sippy employed technicians from Hollywood to film his stunt
scenes. That should be a first in the history of Bollywood.
* Sholay was initially panned by critics and received a poor response
but gathered momentum by virtue of mouth to mouth publicity.
* Salim-Javed thought that Amjad Khan's voice was not suitable for
Gabbar's character. They thought it wouldn't stand a chance against
the three "Maharathis" of Sholay, namely Bachchan, Dharam and Sanjeev
Kumar. Ramesh Sippy however thought differently.
* Sholay is perhaps the only film in the history of Bollywood where
the fringe characters like Kaalia, Sambha, Soorma Bhopali, Jailor
etc..still remain etched in our minds.
* Jaya Bhaduri was pregnant during the shooting of Sholay and Amitabh
would take special pains to see that she was in comfort during the
shoot by accompanying her everywhere on the sets.
* The film was shot in a village called Ramanagaram which is about
one hour drive from Bangalore.
* There was a qawwalli called a "char bhand", which is a quawwali
between 4 ppl. it's an art form specific to Bhopal and was suggested
by Javed Akhtar. it was recorded and Anand Bakshi was one of the
singers. but the film was already too long so the qawwali was never
picturised. Anand bakshi still says had it been he might have a
career as a singer.
* Initially, Danny was supposed to play Gabbar but had to opt out due
to a date clash.
* Amitabh had put a lot of stickers on his jeans but Ramesh Sippy
asked him to take them out!
* When the film didn't do well initially, the makers thought about
changing the ending and letting Amitabh live but Ramesh Sippy was
dead against it. He felt that people were supposed to leave the
theatres with an aching heart!
* Finally, Anupama Chopra mentioned that she's partial to Amitabh and
she still cries EVERYTIME she sees Bachchan die in the end!