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In the 1970s, Bollywood was a one man industry and Amitbah Bachchan was its king. The Shahenshah of Bollywood, Bachchan was born in India in 1942, son of the well-known poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan. After graduating from Delhi University, he travelled to Bombay to be an actor, but struggled initially because at 6'3" he was considered too tall by many film-makers. Bachchan did not find fame until his thirteenth film, Zanjeer, in which he played a strict police officer, but after that he would achieve near deity in India. He appeared in Deewaar, Sharaabi and Hum throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s and each time his career was declared over he returned with bigger and better successes. He also presented India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Voted superstar of the Millennium in an online poll, over Sir Laurence Olivier and Chaplin, he is so popular that once, when he was injured during the filming of Coolie in 1983, all of India offered prayers at temples and mosques for him to recover.
