Megastar Amitabh Bachchan recalled the rejections and harsh criticism he faced during his struggling days in the Hindi film industry. In a special episode celebrating India’s sporting achievements, the actor, in conversation with Commonwealth 2026 gold medal winners Lovlina Borgohain, Jhandu Kumar, Sharmila Dhankar and Asmita Dey, revealed the difficulties he faced in his early days.
The actor recalled that he was told that he was too tall to be an actor and was asked to leave the set when he arrived late for a film shoot.
During the episode, Asmita asked Bachchan if just like athletes often get scolded by their coaches when they make mistakes during training, actors too have to face the wrath of directors on film sets. Big B laughed when he remembered how much criticism he faced while trying to make his place in the film industry.
We get scolded a lot, we got scolded a lot in the beginning. ‘You don’t know anything, acting-acting, you are too tall, go home. Then he remembered that even after finally getting the work, the criticism did not stop. ‘Then when I got the work,’ Okay, okay, stand there and speak the dialogue. Is there any way to speak such dialogue? Give her teeth like this, do good like this, slowly again. Bachchan also shared an incident from his early days, when he arrived late for a shoot and was asked to leave the set.
‘Normally we want to shoot ahead of time. Once late. The director stood outside the set and we took the car, it was someone else’s car, we did not have it at that time, when we reached there, he saw that the shooting had been packed up. ‘Get out of here,’ and he let me out.
For those who do not know, let us tell you that Amitabh Bachchan, who has been a part of the entertainment world for more than five decades, made his first introduction to cinema as a voice over artist before venturing into acting.
In 1969, he lent his distinctive powerful voice to Mrinal Sen’s low-budget film ‘Bhuvan Shome’, which proved to be a milestone in India’s parallel cinema movement.
Around the same time, Amitabh Bachchan auditioned for the post of news reader at All India Radio (AIR), but was rejected, reportedly because his heavy voice was not considered suitable for the position.
After this, he made his acting debut in the same year with ‘Saat Hindustani’, which unfortunately was not liked by the audience. The megastar got success with films like ‘Zanjeer’, which established him as the ‘angry young man’ of Hindi cinema.
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After this he gave many big hits like ‘Deewar’, ‘Sholay’, ‘Don’, ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar’, ‘Trishul’, ‘Kala Patthar’ and ‘Agneepath’. Over the decades, Bachchan has worked in films across genres and generations, including films like ‘Mohabbatein’, ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’, ‘Black’, ‘Paa’, ‘Piku’, ‘Pink’, ‘102 Not Out’ and ‘Jhund’.