Bollywood's Shahenshah completes 40 years

Somen Mishra , CNN-IBN
Posted on Nov 07, 2009 at 22:00 | Updated Nov 08, 2009 at 11:23

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Mumbai: The year was 1969 and a young 27-year-old - tall and lanky - aspiring actor named Amitabh Bachchan made his big screen debut in Khwaja Ahmad Abbas' Saat Hindustani.

The film, which released exactly 40 years ago on November 7, saw Amitabh Bachchan play the role of a Muslim poet who joins six other commandos to liberate Goa from the Portuguese.

Amitabh Bachchan bagged the National Award for best newcomer that year, but everyone thought his unconventional looks would go against him in showbiz. However four decades later the actor is a living legend who is still going strong.

Romance, comedy, drama, action, suspense, emotion, song and dance - whatever a Bollywood film demands, the Big B delivers. In the last four decades, Amitabh Bachchan has acted in over 150 films and still inspires the next generation of actors and filmmakers.

At 67 years of age, when most actors of his generation have gone off the radar, the icon continues to push the envelope his latest role being that of a 13-year-old in his next release Paa!.

Every time his professional obituary has been written, the actor has bounced back. From the angry young man in the '70s and '80s to television's most popular host in the new millennium and now to an icon who has reinvented himself on the big screen, the legend of Amitabh Bachchan continues.

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