From Losing a Job to His Health Woes — Here’s What You Don’t Know About Amitabh Bachchan

Star of the millennium Amitabh Bachchan turns 78 today. The legendary actor who is often called Shahenshah of Bollywood has a fan following of millions.

Amitabh has starred in more than 200 movies, many of which have been a blockbuster hit. On his birthday, let’s read about some lesser-known facts about the celebrated actor.

·The Sooryavansham star is ambidextrous — which means that he can use both his left and right hands for writing and he can do it efficiently.

· Amitabh Bachchan once shared on the sets of KBC that before he was born, his pregnant mother went out and participated in a freedom march. A friend of Amitabh’s father Harivansh Rai Bachchan, jokingly said that the kid should be named inquilab, which means revolution. However, famous poet Sumitranandan Pant, a friend of Harivansh was present when the superstar was born and he named the child, Amitabh.

· Not many would know but director Ashutosh Gowariker had rejected Amitabh Bachchan as the narrator of the 2001 film Lagaan. The director of the blockbuster Aamir Khan starrer film had said that Amitabh’s voice is too familiar to take the audience to the year 1893, in which the period drama was set.

· Many people admire Amitabh’s voice so it is not surprising that his first work was as a voice artist in the Hindi film industry with Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome. But what may shock you is that he could not get a job at the All India Radio after repeated attempts of trying to meet prominent radio presenter Ameen Sayani.

· The megastar may look healthy for his age but he is surviving on only 25 percent of his liver. In 1982, after he met with a near-fatal accident on the sets of his film Coolie, he required blood transfusion. One of his donors had Hepatitis B and that is how the virus entered Amitabh’s body.

The actor is currently hosting season 12 of the famous game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) on Sony TV.