Hindi film industry's legend Amitabh Bachchan turns 82 today, celebrating a remarkable career that includes over 200 films like Deewar, Sholay, and Amar Akbar Anthony. His iconic voice and performances have earned him the title of "Superstar of the Century." Interestingly, there was a time when Amitabh Bachchan aka Shahenshah faced a media ban. Let us tell you the whole story on his birthday.

Amitabh Bachchan is one of the biggest names in the history of Indian cinema. It is hard for people to imagine that he was banned from getting media coverage. But the superstar had to face this situation at the peak of his stardom. During the Emergency in 1975, a section of the film media boycotted Amitabh Bachchan for his alleged role in the press censorship implemented at that time. In an old video, Amitabh reveals how, in retaliation, he banned the media from visiting the sets of his films for many years as the actor believed that he did not need to say anything other than what he had to say on screen.

Amitabh, in a throwback video to Lehren, revealed how he was banned. "In 1975, when the Emergency was declared in the country, film journalists wrongly thought that the press censorship that came with the Emergency was because of me," the actor had said. "They said, 'This man is close to Indira Gandhi and he is involved in press censorship and so we need to ban Amitabh Bachchan.' They stopped writing about me and printing my pictures. If I was in a film, they would write about the star cast, but not my name."

The actor further revealed that in response to this, he stopped the media from coming to his film sets and refused to give any interviews for many years. He recalled, "I felt that if the press has the freedom to ban me, then I should also have the freedom to ban them. That is why whenever I was shooting reporters wanted to meet me, I would refuse. This continued for about 15 years."

According to Amitabh, this ban was lifted after he entered politics as he needed the media to reach out to the masses. Amitabh contested and won the Lok Sabha election from Allahabad in 1984 and served as a Member of Parliament for three years. He finally resigned in 1987 and came back to acting.