Amitabh Bachhan is, in popular parlance, the king of Indian cinema. The older of the two sons of Harivansh Rai, an acclaimed Hindi poet, and the socialite Teji Bachhan, Amitabh went to Sherwood College, a boarding school in the hill-station town of Nainital, and from there to Delhi University where he earned an arts degree. His first appearance was in the movie Saat Hindustani [Seven Indians], which did not do particularly well at the box office. Nonetheless, Amitabh was not deterred, and he can be said to have arrived in the Hindi film world with the films Zanjeer [Chains] and Deewar [Wall] . 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. The time was set in the mid-1970s, when domestic politics were in a period of great turmoil, student unrest was prevalent, and the employment prospects for educated young men were bleak at best. In Deewar, which furnishes the classic example of the double in Hindi cinema, he played the role of a mafia don and smuggler opposite his policeman brother, played by Shashi Kapoor. The theme of 'alienation' is further explored in Shakti [Energy; Strength], where as the son of a strict police officer (Dilip Kumar), Amitabh takes to the high life of crime and smuggling.

Altogether, Amitabh Bachhan has appeared in over 100 films, an astounding number most of which, were box office blockbusters. During the shooting of the movie Coolie, he injured himself fatally and had a near brush with death. He married Jaya Bhaduri, one of the most successful and accomplished actresses in Hindi cinema, and quite in the Indian fashion, she ceased to act in Hindi films after their marriage.

About ten years later, Amitabh retired from the film world. He then tried his hand at politics. Due to his enormous popularity, not to mention the close association with Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, he was elected to parliament with a huge majority from his home city of Allahabad. But his stint in politics did not last long and he was appalled by the beauraucracy in politics. He resigned his seat in parliament and returned to cinema.

Bachchan always had an extraordinary public presence in India. It was Satyajit Ray, among others, who found that Amitabh's deep and rich voice, which left a lasting impression upon listeners, made for excellent narration. Amitabh had provided narration for numerous films and cultural programs, and was the head of the prodcution corporation, ABCL. In the early 1990s, he started build upon his conviction to corporatize the film industry and the proposition that India ought become a major player on the world stage. His company was the principal sponsor of the 1996 Miss World Contest, held in Bangalore.

In 1997, the Big B at age 55, made a return to cinema once more with the film Mrityudata. However the scripts did not do justice to his age and status anymore. The 'Angry Young Man' was no longer young. He was panned by the critics and the audience seemed to be moving away from him as well. But as it turned out, that was never meant to be. People all over the world still loved Amitabh. In July of 1999, he was named the Superstar of the Millenium by BBC Online poll where he defeated many Hollywood legends such as Alec Guiness and Marlon Brando. The following year in June of 2000, Bachchan became the first living Asian to have a statue erected in his honor at London's prestigious Madame Tussauds museum. Then in the summer of 2000, he changed the face of Indian showbusiness when he became an anchor for the Quiz show: Kaun Banega Crorepati. The show instantly became a record-breaking, historical success and even started dropping the collections of the films released at the box office which went head to head with KBC. He consolidated this by playing his age and playing it brilliantly in the Aditya Chopra film Mohabbatein. Unlike his past comeback films however, this time around, he was universally acclaimed as the highlight for his performance, both by the critics and the audience alike. The Big B was back! As the year 2000 ended, at the age of 58, Amitabh Bachchan was once again the Superstar of India.