Birthday Special: Five unknown facts about megastar Amitabh Bachchan

Mumbai: The famous saying 'age is just a number' suits best for India's megastar Amitabh Bachchan who is celebrating his 74th birthday on Tuesday. On his special day, newstrack.com brings to you some surprising facts about Big B that many of us are not aware about.

Amitabh Bachchan's original name is Inqalab: We call him Amitabh Bachchan or Big B but the original name of Bollywood's evergreen actor is Inqalab that was kept after his mother Teji Bachchan actively participated in India's freedom struggle during her pregnancy days. It was noted Indian poet Sumitranandan Pant who suggested the name 'Amitabh' to his father Harivanshrai Bachchan later.

Amitabh Bachchan played 'Vijay' in 19 films: The 1973 film Zanjeer starred Big B in and as 'Vijay' that took Box Office by storm. Filmmakers used the name 'Vijay' for 18 other Amitabh Bachchan films after Zanjeer.

Amitabh gave 12 flops in a row before Zanjeer: It is hard to imagine now that an actor who gave hundreds of blockbuster films to the Indian cinema was once struggling to give a single hit. Zanjeer was a record breaking film for Amitabh but before that he gave as many as 12 flop films but filmmakers and Big B himself never lost hope.

Coolie's ending was changed after Amitabh's fatal accident: Amitabh Bachchan was critically injured on 26 July 1982 in the intestines while filming a fight scene with co-star Puneet Issar for Coolie at the Bangalore University campus, which almost cost him his life. He was admitted to a Mumbai hospital and his fans from all across India offered prayers for his speedy recovery. The original script showed Amitabh dying after Kader Khan shot him. But later on, Manmohan Desai decided to change the ending citing the sentiments of Big B's fans. The modified ending has the hero recover after his operation.

Amitabh Bachchan's debut film was not 'Saat Hindustani': Not many of us know that the debut film of Bollywood's angry young man was not Saat Hindustani. Amitabh made his film debut with Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvanshom in 1969. He didn't act in the film but gave his voice from the background.

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