Awards, Honours and Recognitions
Apart from National Film Awards, Filmfare Awards and other competitive awards which Bachchan won for his performances throughout the years, he has been awarded several honours for his achievements in the Indian film industry. In 1991, he became the first artist to receive the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, which was established in the name of Raj Kapoor. Bachchan was crowned as Superstar of the Millennium in 2000 at the Filmfare Awards. The Government of India awarded him with the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Padma Bhushan in 2001. France's highest civilian honour, the Knight of the Legion of Honour, was conferred upon him by the French Government in 2007 for his "exceptional career in the world of cinema and beyond". In 2011, actor Dilip Kumar blogged that Black should have been nominated for an Oscar. Kumar added: "If any Indian actor, in my personal opinion, deserves the world's most coveted award, it is you."
In 1999, Bachchan was voted the "greatest star of stage or screen" in a BBC Your Millenium online poll. The organisation noted that "Many people in the western world will not have heard of ... is a reflection of the huge popularity of Indian films." In 2001, he was honoured with the Actor of the Century award at the Alexandria International Film Festival in Egypt in recognition of his contribution to the world of cinema. Many other honours for his achievements were conferred upon him at several International Film Festivals, including the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Asian Film Awards.
In June 2000, he became the first living Asian to have been immortalised in wax at London's Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Another statue was installed in New York in 2009, Hong Kong in 2011 and Bangkok in 2011.
In 2003, he was conferred with the Honorary Citizenship of the French town of Deauville. He was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Jhansi, India, in 2004, the University of Delhi in 2006, the De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, in 2006, the University Brandan Foster by the Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire, UK, in 2007, and the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, in 2011.
On 27 July 2012, Bachchan was given the due honor to carry the Olympic torch during the last leg of its relay in in London's Southwark.
Severals books have been written about Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan: the Legend was published in 1999, To be or not to be: Amitabh Bachchan in 2004, AB: The Legend: (A Photographer's Tribute) in 2006 /, Amitabh Bachchan: Ek Jeevit Kimvadanti in 2006, Amitabh: The Making of a Superstar in 2006, Looking for the Big B: Bollywood, Bachchan and Me in 2007 and Bachchanalia in 2009. Bachchan himself also wrote a book in 2002: Soul Curry for you and me – An Empowering Philosophy That Can Enrich Your Life. In the early 80s, Bachchan authorized the use of his likeness for the comic book character Supremo in a series titled The Adventures of Amitabh Bachchan.
Read more about this topic: Amitabh Bachchan
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“Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)