Amitabh Bachchan

Bachchan's parents were initially going to name him Inquilaab ( Hindustani for "Revolution"), inspired by the phrase Inquilab Zindabad ("Long live the revolution") popularly used during the Indian independence struggle; the name Amitabh was suggested to his father by poet Sumitranandan Pant . Although his surname was Srivastava , Amitabh's father, who opposed the caste system , had adopted the pen name Bachchan ("child-like" in colloquial Hindi), under which he published all of his works.

When his father was looking to get him admitted to a school, he and Bachchan's mother decided the family's name should be Bachchan instead of Shrivastava. It is with this last name that Amitabh debuted in films and used for all other practical purposes, Bachchan has become the surname for all of his immediate family. Bachchan's father died in 2003, and his mother in 2007. Bachchan's secondary education was at Boys' High School & College in Allahabad and Sherwood College in Nainital .

He attended Kirori Mal College at the University of Delhi in Delhi. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Kirori Mal College in 1962. When Bachchan finished his studies, his father approached Prithviraj Kapoor , the founder of Prithvi Theatre and patriarch of the Kapoor acting family , to see if there was an opening for him, but Kapoor offered no encouragement. Bachchan was a friend of Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi , before he became an actor.

He used to spend time with them when he was a resident in New Delhi. Bachchan's family were very close to the Nehru-Gandhi family of politicians. When Sonia Gandhi first came to India from Italy before her marriage, Bachchan had received her at the Palam International Airport on 13 January 1968. She spent 48 days at Bachchan's house with his parents before her wedding to Rajiv.