Bollywood veteran actor, Amitabh Bachchan is known for his intense and powerful performances in movies that became iconic and cult classics. Apart from that, the actor is also popular as the host of the well-loved reality TV show, Kaun Banega Crorepati. With a career in Bollywood spanning over 5 decades, Amitabh Bachchan’s personal and professional life has grabbed headlines for many different reasons.
However, there is a side of Amitabh Bachchan that is still not well-known among the public. And that is his tumultuous life as a businessman. After starting his own production house, ABCL, the actor faced many challenges, including bankruptcy. However, there was a domino effect in play that helped launch the career of the late actor, Mukul Dev. What was the surprising connection between these two actors at one point in time? Read on to know more.
Amitabh Bachchan started his own production house known as, ABCL
Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited, aka ABCL, was started by the actor, Amitabh Bachchan in 1995. Along with the actor himself, his wife, Jaya Bachchan, and his son, Abhishek Bachchan, are key people in the company. The organisation was involved in film production, distribution and event management. It also organised the Miss World competition in Bangalore in 1996, and became popular for bringing this global pageant to the country, however, soon after it landed in financial troubles.
Amitabh Bachchan’s ABCL had signed Mukul Dev for his debut film
Mukul Dev had made his debut film with Mahesh Bhatt’s Dastak. However, there was another film in which he had first acted, but it was never released. The film was Naam Kya Hai, made by ABCL production house. In an interview with Lehren TV, the actor revealed that Jaya Bachchan had approached him with the offer to act in one of the three films being made by Amitabh Bachchan’s production company. He was also paid an advance of Rs. 75000. Talking about his meeting with Jaya Bachchan, Mukul revealed that the veteran actress had told him:
“When she met me she had said, ‘I want to sign you. We are making three films and you are doing at least one film with us among the three films that we are producing. I don’t know which of these films you will do but you will do a film with us.’”
Amitabh Bachchan’s ABCL company faced a major financial crisis, and Mukul Dev’s debut film was canned
Mukul Dev’s film with ABCL, Naam Kya Hai, would have been marked as his Bollywood debut film. However, that never came to be since the production house ran into financial troubles, and all the movies made during the time had to be indefinitely shelved. Mukul’s film was completely shot, and it was about to be released but had to be canned. In an interaction with Planet Bollywood, the actor stated that Amitabh Bachchan had incurred huge losses due to the crisis, and around 3-4 films remained unreleased forever.
Amitabh Bachchan went bankrupt and faced 55 legal cases
Amitabh Bachchan had opened up about his financial struggles in the late 90s in an interview with Vir Sanghvi. ABCL was valued at Rs. 60 crore while it faced losses of Rs. 70 crore, there was also an additional debt of Rs. 22 crore. Amitabh Bachchan had mortgaged his own family home, Prateeksha. By the time Mukul Dev’s debut film with the production house was to be released, Amitabh Bachchan had incurred a loss of Rs. 90 crores. Hence, he had no choice but to cancel the film before its release. On the other hand, the actor was offered the host seat of KBC, and a pivotal role in Mohabbatein, which helped him to float over his losses financially. Amitabh also admitted in the interview that there were 55 legal cases against him.
Mukul Dev was given a role in Dastak after Amitabh Bachchan’s production house went bankrupt
The advance amount of Rs.75000 that Mukul Dev was given while signing with ABCL was the only money he earned from the film since it remained unreleased forever. However, the promos of Naam Kya Hai, had already been aired on TV. It was in those promos that filmmaker, Mahesh Bhatt noticed the actor and offered him the main lead role in Dastak, opposite another debutant, Sushmita Sen. After Dastak, Mukul went on to star in many other Bollywood films and Hindi TV shows.
Who knows how Naam Kya Hai would have turned out for Mukul Dev, but the film being shelved still somehow worked in his favour.
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