The Amitabh Bachchan Quiz

The good folks at Mad About Moviez (and my friend, Sethu in particular) have hosted an Amitabh Bachchan quiz that I have done. So, you could answer it here on the blog or hop across to their site. 

1. To start with an easy one: which is the first film in which Amitabh Bachchan received on-screen credit?

2. When was Amitabh Bachchan supposed to play the role of Judge Lawrence Wargrave and why did he end up not playing it?

3. What was Amitabh’s qualification in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham? And from where did he get that qualification?

4. Explain the connection of this flower to AB.








5. What is common to Anand, Manzil, Kabhi Kabhie and Baghban?

6. Which stalwart presented the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award to Amitabh Bachchan?

7. In the early 1980s, Jaya Bachchan referred to someone as her ‘souten’. Who was this person?

8. Explain the connection of his precious gem to AB.











9. Orissa Minerals Development Company is currently listed on BSE at a price of approximately Rs 44500 per share (of Rs 10), which is among the highest share prices in the country. In 2011, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam bought a 51% stake in the holding company of OMDC. How is this linked to Amitabh Bachchan?



10. Name this character and explain the slight blooper.









ANSWERS
Okay, first the bad news... There were only 11 entries. The good news, however, is the answers were really detailed and well thought. Net net, only the people who knew everything (or could Google it *heh heh*) answered. Sigh... I was really hoping for some innocent entries!
Only two of them were on the blog and the rest were on mail. Mr Abhishek Mukherjee decided to take no risks and mailed his answer to all three of my email IDs he knew!

Without much ado, here are the answers.
1. Bhuvan Shome, it is. Universally correct. His first screen credit was 'Amitabh'.
2. He was supposed to play this pivotal character from Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None in his final year at Sherwood. He had won the Kendall Prize for acting in the previous year and if he won it again, it would have set a record. Unfortunately, he caught measles and was unable to perform. His father kept him company in the school infirmary and said a beautiful line to console him - "Man ka ho toh achha. Man ka na ho toh zyada achha..."
3. He was an MBA from King's College, London. Inferred from the line Hrithik Roshan spoke about doing an MBA from London was about following a family tradition.
4. That flower is from the Singapore Orchid Garden and is called Dendrobium Amitabh Bachchan.
5. These are names of books written by Amitabh Bachchan and NOT films in which he wrote books. The difference is because Manzil was the name of the book he wrote in Ek Nazar.
6. Sunil Gavaskar
7. Shashi Kapoor, who co-starred with AB in a million films
8. That diamond is called the Millennium Star (though not in honour of the Star of the Millennium)
9. The holding company of OMDC is Bird Group, where AB worked as a freight broker while in Calcutta
10. The name of the character - as Rajni says in the Hindi version of Shivaji: The Boss - was Abhiram Bachchan while all the ID proofs show AB Bachchan. You could argue this is fine and this fictitous Abhiram had a middle name starting with B but there's only one AB Senior in this world, okay?

And here are the contestants:
Anonymous                         4.0
Straight Cut, Subbu             5.0
Kaushik Ray, ABbaby         7.0
DS, VinBin, AKBose          8.0
Digant, Abhishek                 9.0
Kinjal Mandawat                 9.5 (given 0.5 points and declared topper for the super-detailed answers)

Digant, Abhishek and Kinjal - Congratulations! Mail me your postal addresses to send you a copy of the book. This promotional tactic seems to have backfired spectacularly because two of the three winners already have the book! Sigh... Gift the book to somebody who would love it and ask them to promote it mercilessly.

Comments

1. Bhuvan Shome (as Amitabh).
2. In a school play. He caught measles.
3. MBA, London.
4. It is the orchid called Dendrobium Amitabh Bachchan.
5. All these are names of books penned by characters played by Amitabh Bachchan.
6. Sunil Gavaskar.
7. Shashi Kapoor, for the time he spent with Amitabh Bachchan in movies was apparently more than she got to spend with her husband.
8. The precious gem is called The Millennium Star. In July 1999 Amitabh Bachchan won the The Greatest Star of stage or screen of the Millennium in a BBC Poll. In 2000 he was elected the Filmfare Superstar of the Millennium.
9. Bird and Co., Amitabh Bachchan's first employer, had made a comeback to the Calcutta Stock Exchange through Orissa Minerals Development Company in 2009.
10. The character is Shivaji - The Boss. As we know, there is, and has been, only one boss.
Straight Cut said…
Thanks Dipta, for putting up a quiz after such a long hiatus. Great questions as always! I know I am going to get half of them wrong, but what the heck – attempting itself was good fun.
1. Bhuvan Shome
2. Lawrence Wargrave = Main villain of Agatha Christie’s ‘And then there were none’
This play was staged by his college in his final year and Amitabh was chosen to play this role. However, he caught measles some days before the performance.
3. MBA from London
4. Like Professor Sukumar Sinha, I too am an absolute ‘zero’ in Botany! So this ‘phool-patti’ wala question is too tough. Ek hint milega?
Kaash, this flower was a ‘gobi ka phool’, then the link would have been in Chupke Chupke itself!!
5. In each of these movies, Amitabh writes an award-winning book.
6. Raaj Kumar (with Dimple)
7. Manmohan Desai. (Can’t be Rekha, that’s too obvious! I was guessing Amar Singh as well (), but don’t think their friendship was that strong in the early 80s)
8. I have two guesses, please take your pick!!
Guess 1 – This previous gem is worth Rs 900,000, and the link to AB is the song from Sharaabi: ‘Mujhe Naulakha Manga de re’!
Guess 2 – This is a trademark gem belonging to Kalyan Jewellers and both AB and Aishwarya are brand ambassadors for Kalyan!!
[Bahut dimaag laga diya, Dada, grace marks chahiye!]
9. Before moving to Mumbai, Amitabh worked in ‘Bird & Co’ in Kolkata in the mid-60s. OMDC was one of the flagship companies of the Bird group.
10. From the Hindi dubbed version of Shivaji – The Boss, this character is AB Bachchan (it was MGR in Tamil). The slight blooper, of course, is in the name itself – AB Bachchan, rather than A. Bachchan!
vidhu said…
Sucks... I come to the blog everyday hoping someone would have answered the quiz .. Mr. CC.. pls provide the answer. It has been long enough :)
Anonymous said…
sir you give old movies questions of the Amitabh Bachchan, can you give updated Amitabh Bachchan Quiz