Amitabh Bachchan, who recently celebrated his 82nd birthday, has been in the movies since the 1960s and he has truly seen the highs and the lows of the movie business. He had a slow start in the film industry but eventually became one of the top actors of his generation but his stardom took a hit in the 1990s when the veteran actor took a sabbatical from the movies to focus on his business. During this time, his movies were not working at the box office and while he was still a respected actor in the film industry, the audience wasn’t kind to him. Bachchan once recalled that he was once abused by people for his acting abilities and this happened when he was sitting in his car with his parents.

In a chat with Vir Sanghvi in 1999, Amitabh recalled that once, when he was travelling in his car with his parents, passers by put their heads inside his car and abused his acting and it was a very demoralising experience for him. “People on the streets. They would put their heads inside the window of the car and be abusive about my acting abilities,” he said and added, “Well, you feel bad. And you feel worse because you know your parents are sitting behind you in your car.”

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In the same interview, Amitabh Bachchan recalled that when he was a struggling actor, he was told to leave Mumbai as many believed that he was wasting his time. “There were moments — when I was still a struggling actor — when I would be stopped on the streets and told to get the hell out of the city because I was wasting my time,” he said. Amitabh had then said that he planned to leave the movie business when “people don’t want me anymore.”

Just a couple of years after this interview, Amitabh Bachchan’s life changed when he appeared on Kaun Banega Crorepati, the game show that he continues to host till date. Apart from KBC, Yash Chopra-produced Mohabbatein helped Amitabh Bachchan in regaining his lost stardom.

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