Mumbai, Oct 07: On October 11, superstar Amitabh Bachchan will celebrate his 61st birthday by reliving his two most precious dreams: re-launching his 'sick' entertainment company AB Corp and acting with son Abhishek in a film. AB Corp's first project, the Rs 20-crore Ranveer, will feature Big B and Abhishek together for the first time. Incidentally, they play father and son in the film too, which will be directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. The superstar will make this announcement on Saturday at a suburban five-star hotel in presence of who's who of the corporate world and the Hindi film industry. Mr Bachchan had been talking about reviving AB Corps since the last few months after he finally paid up the company's staggering Rs 70-crore debt. But he chose his birthday to make this announcement since he is "extremely superstitious", according to industry insiders. He had announced Abhishek's engagement to actress Karisma Kapoor (which was later terminated) and released a 400-page coffee table book To B or Not to B on his 60th birthday.
Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd (ABCL), as the company was initally known, suffered huge financial losses in organising the Miss World pageant in Bangalore in 1996 and also on their home production, the Rs 10-crore Mrityudata which featured the Big B along with Dimple Kapadia and Karisma Kapoor.
Mr Bachchan was dragged in several law suits for failing to repay the company's debt: Canara Bank filed an affidavit in the Bombay high court to attach his bungalow 'Prateeksha' and two flats at Juhu against its Rs 10-crore loan to ABCL. The matter was later resolved out of the court.
In fact, the actor has admitted that he was forced to do his first commercial for BPL and later, for several other brands, to pay off his massive debt. In his interview, Mr Bachchan had once said: "We were five years ahead of time. There was no experience of how to run the business of entertainment. There was mismanagement and too much reliances on executives."