A Life in Pictures: Amitabh Bachchan

20 November 07

Supported by The Farm Group.

We're talking about a gentleman who changed the entire image of Indian cinema - Saeed Jaffrey

The star of over 120 films, Amitabh Bachchan is a living Bollywood legend. Through a prolific career encompassing brief spells in both politics and television, he has achieved global recognition as an undisputed screen icon.

Through the scope and quality of his work – not to mention his classic good looks and intense on-screen charisma – he has won both critical and popular acclaim to become India’s biggest star. With his wife, the renowned Bollywood actress Jaya Bhaduri, the Bachchans are considered the royal family of Hindi cinema.

Amitabh has often been referred to as the ' Angry Young Man ' of Indian cinema for his defiant character studies throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Providing India with heroic and thoroughly modern role models, Bachchan became a cultural and cinematic ambassador in his homeland and around the world.

Today, Indian cinema is receiving increased recognition worldwide and nowhere more so than in Britain. Indian films now account for around 13 percent of all UK releases, taking over £15 million at the box office.

A Life in Pictures

To recognise Amitabh Bachchan's outstanding contribution to world cinema the Academy hosted a Screen Icons weekend in his honour. In front of a packed audeince at 195 Piccadilly Alan Yentob talked to the actor about his 'life in pipctures'.

Amitabh recalls memorable moments from an extraordinary career including his childhood, his break-through performances and his recent television success. Together they discus the nature of fame, the role of cinema in India and the growing influence of Bollywood around the world. Comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar and actors Kabir Bedi and Saeed Jeffrey then pay personal tributes to the man who changed the image of Indian cinema.

• See more Webcasts from the Academy's Life in Pictures series

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