By: Amit kumaR Agarwal
Academy Award Winner Leonardo DiCaprio is totally floored by the Bachchan Charisma
Arjuna Awardee and Olympics medalist, Manu Bhaker, made big news in 2024, not only for her shooting skills, but also when she appeared on KBC and the episode was one of the most watched in TV history across the world.
Though, post the show, she was trolled for her one statement - that - almost every country she went to knew about Amitabh Bachchan! Prompting trollers, mostly nincompoops, to go after her throat full-throttle. A screenshot of a leading news-daily is shared with this article.
First of all Manu was equating Shahrukh to Amitabh and not the other way round, so trollers got it all wrong in the first place!
A troller went on to say that she/he has been to 80-countries and she/he didn't hear anyone say Amitabh Bachchan. It is another matter though the passport of this troller won't even have stamp of 18 or may be 8 countries.
Assumptions apart, the writer has himself travelled to more than 69 countries and the first name he hears on being told he is from India is Amitabh Bachchan, a close second is Raj Kapoor (number one is CIS countries).
Why, even the security at Cannes Film Festival from countries like Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, knows Mr. Bachchan very well. There are many instances where the writer got preferential treatment just because he shares his first name in part with Amitabh Bachchan.
The photo above at 'The Great Gatsby' premier at the Grand Lumiere in Cannes Film Festival, will open the eyes of many, of the sheer magnitude of success of AB.
Amitabh played a very small cameo of about 5-minutes, 1-scene, in The Great Gatsby, still he was accorded the same protocol as Leonardo, Tobey, Carrie and Baz were accorded by the Cannes officials.
The fan-following made even Academy Award winner, Leonarado DiCaprio and Spiderman, Tobey Maguire look at him in awe.
The highest paid actor in the world in 80+ category; the latest blockbuster of all time, Kalki 2898 AD, released in 2024, ironically has an 82-year old actor read Amitabh Bachchan stealing the limelight from everyone else in the cast!
If there is still any doubt, the packed concerts in the mid-80's when the Indian Film Industry and the Indians were yet to explode across the globe will open anybody's eyes!
A concert in the famous Wembley is still very prestigious, imagine the prestige-value attached about three-decades back. He not only did sold out shows then, a producer made a film out of the concert, released in top-cinemas across the world - that ladies and gentleman is Amitabh Bachchan.
As late Rajesh Khanna, put it, "the kind of superstardom Amitabh and I have seen, future generations can't even fathom".