He
belonged to the prestigious ‘Bachchan Gharana’ .His father Late
Hariwansh rai Bachchan was a well renounced poet who still rocks the world with
his compositions like ‘Madhusala & Agneepath’ but this tall guy was
born to surpass the height of his father’s glory .So,today we know Late
Hariwansh Rai Bachchan as father of the ‘superstar of the millennium’
INQUILAAB SRIVASTAVA…….don’t get confused I am taking about AMITABH
BACHCHAN only.Actually ‘Bachchan’ was pen name of his
father which means ‘child like’ which he adopted as his surname in place
of his paternal one i.e ‘Srivastava’ and ‘Inquilaab’ was the
first name given to our superstar which was changed to ‘Amitabh’ on the
suggestion of renowned poet Sumitranandan Pant.
He
ruled the industry in his youth and in his late sixties he is still rocking it.
He also had his share of flop films, accidents on film sets (almost fatal one
on the sets of coolie) and struggle in the industry which we all know about but
in this article I want to talk about two of his major failures :
- Politics
- Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited(ABCL)
He
ventured into the corporate and political arena with a bang to explode like a
balloon later.
These failures not only brought ‘bad name’ to him but also made him
almost ‘bankrupt’.
He
had left the job of ‘freight broker’ in his twenties after which he
broke all the records of the film industry but being an ambitious man he aimed
at politics in 1984. In a film crazy country where actors are called ‘HEROS’
and worshipped as ‘DEMIGODS’ scooping up votes was a child’s play for
the man who ruled the heart of masses with his ‘ANGRY YOUNG MAN’
image. His popularity was proved after his 26 July 1982 accident while
filming coolie after which there where long ques of public outside the
hospitals and temples ,some die hard fans offered to sacrifice limbs for his
recovery.
With
help of his long time family friend Rajiv Gandhi he contested Allahabad’s
seat of 8Th Lok Sabha against the heavyweight politician and former
CM i.e H.N Bahuguna. His confidence was correct and he smashed Bahuguna’s
dreams with one of the highest victory margins in general election
history i.e 68.2% of the vote.
My
father always keep telling me “HATHI USE KO KHARIDNI CHAHIYE JISKIAUKAAD
HO HATHI PAALNE KI” , in simple words you should buy something
only if you are capable of bearing the running and maintenance cost. Mr.
Bachchan entered politics, won but had no real idea of how politics is done.
The ‘hero of reel- life’ was unable to fight the ‘real-life political
crooks’. He got frustrated and realised that politics is not his cup of
tea its safer and better to beat monsters in films.After three years of his
historical win he ‘surrendered’ by saying “POLITICS IS A CESSPOOL”
(a pit to collect domestic waste especially human excreta).I wonder why he said
this, he was old enough to know that politics is, was and will always remain
dirty (less or more, in this way or that way).It’s our favourite time pass to
abuse politicians although they are just mere reflection of ‘the so
called weak common man’ who is actually greedy & selfish. Sorry,
that’s a different topic. THANK YOU Amitji you made people who voted for
you to realize difference between ‘reel-life heroes and real-life heros’.
Later
on he and his brothers where framed in the ‘Bofors Scandal’ but
at the end he was declared clean.He took lessons from this chapter of his life
and had maintained safe distance from ‘direct politics’. Now he supports
his friend (Amar Singh helped him during his financial crisis due to the
failure of his company ABCL )Amar Singh’s Samajwadi Party by
campaigning for him and his wife is a member of that party and a ‘Rajya
Sabha’ member. He avoided to directly have a verbal fight with Raj Thackrey
during the recent ‘North Indian row’ in which Raj Thackrey accused him
for showering more affection on UP instead of Mumbai. During this menace his
dignified & well thought comments brought big shots like Bala Shaeb
Thakrey to his rescue.The lessons learnt in 80’s was a ‘Goldmine’ for him
in a world where people on peak are always in danger of being accused for petty
things.
In
1996 during his temporary retirement period he became producer setting up
Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd. (A.B.C.L.) in 1996, with the vision of
becoming a 10 billion rupees (approx 250 million $US) premier entertainment
company by the year 2000. ABCL's strategy was to introduce products and
services covering the entire section of the India's entertainment industry. Its
operations were mainstream commercial film production and distribution, audio
cassettes and video discs, production and marketing of television software,
celebrity and event management.
Soon after the company was launched in 1996,
the first film was produced by the company. Tere Mere Sapne failed
to do well. In 1997,he attempted to make his acting comeback with the film Mrityudata,
produced by ABCL. Though Mrityudaata attempted to reprise Bachchan's
earlier success as an action hero, the film was a failure both financially and
critically. ABCL was the main sponsor of the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant,
Bangalore but lost millions.
The fiasco and the consequent legal battles
surrounding ABCL and various entities after the event, coupled with the fact
that ABCL was reported to have overpaid most of its top level managers, eventually
led to its financial and operational collapse in 1997. The company went
into administration and was later declared a failed company by Indian
Industries board. The Bombay high court, in April 1999,
restrained him from selling off his Bombay bungalow 'Prateeksha' and two flats
till the pending loan recovery cases of Canara Bank were disposed of.
He had, however, pleaded that he had mortgaged his bungalow to Sahara India
Finance for raising funds for his company.
This
failure brought the 6’3” tall icon down on ground but ‘when going gets
tough, tough gets going’. Harassed by money lenders he returned to what
he knew the best with a positive attitude and steely grit. He admitted that he
is not a good businessman like ‘Ambanis’ who know how to manage the
smallest things to avoid future loss. This quality of admitting mistakes and
shortcomings is what makes him great. This was the time when he stated going to
gym regularly so that he may not miss his work due to health issues.He vowed
that his financial crisis will not curtail his children’s needs.
He
attempted to re-establish his acting career and got the first breakthrough with
the success of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998),and was adored in Sooryavansham
(1999) but Lal Baadshah (1999) and Hindustan Ki Kasam
(1999) were a box office disaster indicating that the yesterday’s superstar
will have to face 'Agneepath' for some more time in his real life.
The
'Agneepath' ended when he became the super successful host of Kaun
Banega Crorepati(KBC) in 2000 which helped him to repay his loans and in
November 2000 Canara Bank withrew its lawsuit against him.In the same
year ‘Mohabbatein’ showered him with the affection of masses
after which K3G,Bagbaan,Khakee and many other movies proved that 'BOLLYWOOD
IS BACHCHAN’S EMPIRE'.
If
we look at his failure in politics and business then we will brand him as a 'learner’
instead of ‘failure’ who values his hard earned lessons.I wish he
will keep doing what he is best at(acting) till he can so that his
accomplishments can shout back at people who criticize him : “BUDDHA HOGA
TERA BAAP”.
0 comments: