indica News Bureau-
Amitabh Bachchan, easily India’s biggest movie star, has been chosen for this year’s Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Incidentally, this is the veteran’s 50th year in cinema.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted the news yesterday. “The legend Amitabh Bachchan who entertained and inspired for two generations has been selected unanimously for Dadasaheb Phalke Award. The entire country and the international community is happy (sic). My heartiest congratulations to him,” Javadekar posted.
Bachchan, Hindi cinema’s superstar of the 1970s and 1980s, took to Twitter right away to say he was “deeply grateful” and “humbled” at the honor, IANS reported.
“There is a paucity of words searching a response… for the generosity of words that pour in… I am but deeply grateful and most humbled. My sincerest gratitude,” he tweeted.
The veteran actor, who turns 77 next month and is still very active in the film industry, also took to his blog to express his gratitude.
“What really resides in the mind shall never ever be known and may it never… gratitude and the express of immense humbleness bear supreme today and love,” he wrote.
The Dadasaheb Phalke award, named for the man who is considered the father of Indian cinema, is the country’s highest honor in the field of cinematic art. Bachchan is being honored with the award for inspiring generations with his diverse work.
Bachchan began his cinematic journey as one of seven protagonists in KA Abbas’s film Saat Hindustani (1969). Many of his early solo films did not do well at the box office and he was almost written off as an also-ran.
But Bachchan’s performance as a supporting actor was noticed in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s tearjerker Anand in 1971. The film, which starred Hindi cinema’s reigning superstar Rajesh Khanna, was a big hit.
Bachchan then had his first solo hit with Prakash Mehra’s blockbuster Zanjeer (1973), a film for which he was not the first choice. Zanjeer marked the start of Bachchan’s famous Angry Young Man avatar. Thereafter, there was no looking back as he continued to deliver hit upon superhit with almost unfailing regularity until the end of the following decade. During this period, he became Hindi cinema’s superstar, replacing Khanna, and the highest paid actor of the era, the first to be paid a crore of rupees for a movie.
Amitabh Bachchan means different things to different people. Some remember him as the towering lead of films like Zanjeer, Deewaar (1975) and Don (1978) while others appreciate his nuanced performances in films like Abhimaan (1974), Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Black (2005), Paa (2009) and Piku (2015). For the last three, he also won the National award. Then there are those who celebrate him for his comic timing seen in films like Hera Pheri (1976), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Namak Halaal (1982), while still others swear by his intense screen presence.
From touching the pinnacle of stardom to facing failure in his days of bankruptcy and bouncing back in the game and seeing a meteoric rise a second time, Big B — the disparaging moniker conferred by the Bombay film press that has now become a fond nickname — has seen it all.
His upcoming projects include Chehre (2020) with Emraan Hashmi, Gulabo Sitabo (2020) with Ayushmann Khurrana, Syeraa Narasimha Reddy (2019) with Chiranjeevi and Brahmastra (2020) with Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.
