The fourth estate was never restricted from visiting Amitabh Bachchan sets as long as they never crossed his path and the magazines continued to feature the mega star on their covers, creating stories from information gathered at his shootings and more on his personal life, some of them inflammatory write-ups but Amitabh refused to be provoked, refused to react.
The fourth estate was never restricted from visiting Amitabh Bachchan sets as long as they never crossed his path and the magazines continued to feature the mega star on their covers, creating stories from information gathered at his shootings and more on his personal life, some of them inflammatory write-ups but Amitabh refused to be provoked, refused to react.
Silence was and continues to remain his biggest strength…
Amitabh Bachchan was shooting round the clock, doing double sometimes, triple shifts a day and was always the first to report to work. There are instances of Manmohan Desai having to rush the watchman to open the studio gates because the actor was parked outside. Four releases in 1980: Do aur Do Paanch, Dostana, Ram Balram and Shaan and nine films in 1981: Satte Pe Satta, Barsaat Ki Ek Raat, Naseeb, Silsila, Yaarana, Kaalia and Laawaris for which he had recorded playback/Mere angne mein with music director Kalyanji Anandji.
The music composers insisted that he perform the song on stage for a Lata Mangeshkar concert scheduled abroad. Amitabh was unconfident but submitted to their wisdom and the response was overwhelming. The sponsors proposed him a solo concert and unplanned, he became the pioneer of Indian artistes performing live shows abroad. Amitabh is the first to stage musical shows that matched the standards of Madonna and Michael Jackson soon followed by other stars.
Early1982 saw the release of Bemisaal and Namak Halaal and two more Khuddar and Shakti were getting ready for a premier. The collections of his films were growing manifold and trade experts were awestruck by the escalating figures. Distributors coined him number1-10 star because the number 2 was technically number 11 in price and popularity. The sky was the limit and again it seemed like nothing could ever go wrong but it did…
To be continued…
Very very thanks for this article.