Tarun Tejpal - Rejection. Reinvention. Resilience. Amitabh Bachchan’s storied life has it all

The towering giant of Bollywood – Amitabh Bachchan – turns 79 this October, of which over five decades — half a century — are marked by almost ungraspable fame. But fame is an inadequate word for what Bachchan has earned in these decades — he has known adulation, worship, power, privilege, reverence; being treated, in the literal sense, like a god, with idols of his image being prayed to; he has become a multi-generational North Star, the unspoken centre of the cinema industry whether he actively participates in it any longer or not.

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