Abhishek Bacchan,the anything but angry young man, came out of the shadows as Amitabh Bacchan’s son to build a success story in Bollywood.
His father’s son
He was born as Abhishek Amitabh Srivastav on the 5th Feb 1976 in Mumbai. What set him apart from other babies born on that day was that he was the son of superstar extraordinaire Amitabh Bacchan and actress Jaya Bacchan of the Guddi fame, who is currently a Samajwadi MP at the Rajya Sabha. He has an older sister Shweta. He’s also the grandson of Harivansh Rai Srivastav (pen-name Harivansh Rai Bacchan) who was an acclaimed poet. Both Abhishek and Amitabh took on the ‘Bacchan’ from this pen-name. Abhishek is partly Punjabi Sikh on his paternal side and a Bengali Kulin Brahmin on his maternal side.
Abhishek studied at the Jamnabhai Narsee School and Bombay Scottish School, both located in Mumbai and also Modern School in New Delhi. His college years were in Aiglon College, Switzerland amongst the cheese, clocks and banks. He moved to Boston University in U.S to study business only to return back to India to help his father with ABCL, which was hit by a financial crisis.
He was engaged to the controversially sexy Karishma Kapoor back in 2002. They went public during his father’s sixtieth birthday celebration. It lasted as long as January 2003. He got engaged to ‘the most beautiful woman on earth’ Aishwarya Rai in 2007 and tied the knot with her a few months later at the Bacchan’s residence Prateeksha.
Bacchan Jr.
Abhishek’s first film was Refugee opposite Kareena Kapoor in 2000. The film was not a blockbuster but a good debut vehicle nonetheless. He got nominated for the Filmfare Best Debut Award. His acting career dipped from here on as he went on to act in several films that didn’t boost him up to the star status enjoyed by his parents. Some of the films that he starred in between 2000 and 2003 were Dhai Akshar Prem Ke, Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya, Bas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai, Om Jai Jagdish and Mein Prem Ki Deewani Hoon.
Come 2004 and our boy showed that persistence pays off as he delivered some brilliant performances. In 2004, he starred in Mani Rathnam’s Yuva as a goon Lallan Singh, winning the Filmfare Best Supporting Award. He then had another major hit with Dhoom in which he played the part of ACP Jai Dixit. Another film worth taking note of in the same year was Phir Milenge, a recycled version of the Hollywood film Philadelphia revolving around AIDS. Abhishek played the lawyer Tarun Anand.
In 2005, he had a runaway hit in the comedy Bunty Aur Babli with Rani Mukerji, which had shades of the Hollywood hit Bonnie & Clyde. It was the first film where he appeared alongside his father Amitabh Bacchan. The second film with his father, Ram Gopal Verma’s political thriller Sarkar was also a major hit. Abhishek’s portrayal of Shankar Nagre won him the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. He also did some guest appearances in films like Salaam Namaste and Neal n Nikki. He wrapped up the year with Bluffmaster with Priyanka Chopra, in which he sang the number Right Here, Right Now which was one of the top tunes of the year.
The year 2006 saw him in some of the biggest flicks of the year like Kabhie Alvida Naa Kehana that won him his third Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. He also made a brief appearance as Sunny Kurana in the sequel Lage Raho Munna Bhai. He played Nawab Sultan Khan in Umrao Jaan with his real-life bride Aishwarya Rai. The film didn’t do as well as expected. However the sequel Dhoom 2 did a great job at the box office.
In 2007, while Jhoom Barabar Jhoom didn’t perform as well in India as overseas, he did justice to Gurukant Desai in Guru, which also starred Aishwarya Rai. The sequel Sarkar Raj, with Amitabh Bacchan and Aishwarya Rai, again pulled in the moolah at the box office. He had only two films lined up in 2008 – Drona, which was a below average performer and Dostana where he was paired opposite the hunky John Abraham.
Stay tuned
Year 2009 has Abhishek in Dilli 6 and Raavan.
