Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan has spent more than five decades in the film industry, establishing an unmatched legacy. However, his path to becoming one of Hindi cinema’s biggest stars was anything but
smooth. On a recent episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati 18, Big B revisited his early days in Bollywood and spoke about the hurdles he faced at the beginning of his career. He recalled being told that he was too tall for certain roles and even remembered an instance when he was asked to leave a film set after turning up late.
In a special episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati 18, Amitabh Bachchan interacted with Commonwealth Games 2026 gold medallists Lovlina Borgohain, Jhandu Kumar, Sharmila Dhankar and Asmita Dey. During the conversation, Asmita asked the senior actor whether he had ever been scolded on film sets, drawing a parallel with athletes being reprimanded when they make mistakes during training. The veteran actor readily admitted that he had faced his share of reprimands too, particularly during the early years of his acting career.
He said, “Humko badi daant padti hain, shuru-shuru mein toh bahut padi thi. ‘Tumko kuch aata nahi hai, acting-wacting, tum bahut lambe ho, jaake ghar jaao.’(I used to get scolded a lot. In the beginning, I was scolded immensely. They would tell me, ‘You don’t know anything about acting, you are too tall, go back home’).”
Big B went on to recall that even after he began landing acting opportunities, directors would often point out his mistakes and correct him on his performance. He added, “Then when I finally got work, they would say, ‘Okay, fine, stand over there and say the dialogue.’ They would ask, ‘Is this any way to deliver a dialogue?’ They would scold and correct me, and slowly, I improved.”
He recalled an incident when he arrived late on set once. The Piku actor said, “Usually, I try to reach the shoot on time. Once, I was late. The director was standing outside the set. I arrived in someone else’s car because I did not have one at the time. When I reached, the director saw me and said the shooting had been packed up. He told me, ‘Get out of here,’ and asked me to leave.”
Meanwhile, on the work front, Amitabh Bachchan will be next seen in Kalki 2 alongside Prabhas.
