Hindi cinema’s icon and Dadasaheb Phalke award winner Amitabh Bachchan celebrates his 78th birthday today on October 11, 2020.

Bachchan was born in 1942 on this same date in Allahabad (present-day Prayagraj), Uttar Pradesh to renowned poet Harivanshrai Bachchan and Teji Bachchan. His original last name is Srivastava, but his father changed it to Bachchan.

Bachchan started his Hindi movie career with 17 flop movies in a row before Anand in 1971 got him his first Filmfare Award, while Zanjeer in 1973 got him that solo stardom which he so much wanted.

Bachchan then ruled the decade of the late 70s and the whole of 80s with hits like Sholay, Deewar, Chupke Chupke, Trishul, Shakti, Amar Akbar Anthony, and many more which established him as a megastar of the silver screen and also one of the highest-paid performers in the country.

He was badly injured in 1982’s Coolie and spent quite a lot of time in hospital. But returned to form with Shahenshah and Agneepath, which got him his first National Award for best actor. After a sabbatical of four years starting from 1991, Bachchan returned to acting in 1997, but couldn’t capture the audience playing hero to young heroines.

His production company ABCL Ltd failed and he fell into severe debt. He found himself in financial trouble and then it was his decision to host Kaun Banegaa Crorepati (KBC), the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, in 2000 that changed his fate. Mohabbatein came out the same year and he was back on the top in no time, with movies being written and made keeping Bachchan in mind.

He had recently contracted COVID-19, but recovered from the disease and is shooting for KBC and has multiple movies lined up for release.

Today, as he turns 78, he got wishes from all over the world and even the Indian cricket fraternity took to Twitter to wish him.

Here are some tweets: