Amitabh Bachchan Recalls Being Height-Shamed  

MUMBAI-Megastar Amitabh Bachchan recalled facing rejection and harsh criticism during his struggling days in the Hindi film industry, including being told he was too tall to become an actor and being asked to leave a film set after arriving late for a shoot.

The actor shared the memories while in conversation with Commonwealth Games 2026 gold medalists Lovlina Borgohain, Jhandu Kumar, Sharmila Dhankar and Asmita Dey in a special episode celebrating India’s sporting achievements.

During the conversation, Asmita Dey asked Bachchan whether actors, like athletes who are often scolded by their coaches for making mistakes during training, also face the ire of directors on film sets.

Bachchan laughed as he recalled how much he was criticized while trying to establish himself in the film industry.

“I used to get scolded a lot. In the beginning, I was scolded immensely. They would tell me, ‘You don’t know anything about acting, you are too tall, go back home.’”

He then recalled that even after he finally got work, the criticism did not stop. “They would say, ‘Okay, fine, stand over there and say the dialogue.’ They would ask, ‘Is this any way to deliver a dialogue?’ They would scold and correct me, and slowly, I improved.”

Bachchan also shared an incident from his early days when he arrived late for a shoot and was asked to leave the set. “Usually, I try to reach the shoot on time. Once, I was late. The director was standing outside the set. I arrived in a car that belonged to someone else because I did not have a car at the time. When I reached, the director saw me and said the shooting had been packed up. He told me, ‘Get out from here,’ and asked me to leave.”

Amitabh Bachchan began his association with cinema as a voice-over artist before venturing into acting. In 1969, he lent his distinctive baritone to Mrinal Sen’s ‘Bhuvan Shome’, a low-budget film that became a landmark of India’s parallel cinema movement.

Around the same time, Bachchan auditioned for a newsreader’s position at All India Radio (AIR) but was rejected, with his deep voice reportedly considered unsuitable for the job.

Bachchan’s breakthrough came with ‘Zanjeer’, which established him as the ‘angry young man’ of Hindi cinema. (IANS)