When Amitabh Bachchan’s 60 Crore Worth ABCL Faced 70 Crore Loss – A Mortgaged Prateeksha, 22 Crore Additional Load & 5 Things That Happened In 4 Years Making Him Go Bankrupt
5 Projects By ABCL That Made Amitabh Bachchan Go Bankrupt (Picture Credit: IMDb)
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Amitabh Bachchan currently has around 120 crore in his bank balance as his current savings, according to Jaya Bachchan’s recent affidavit. However, this made us recall the time when his bank balance and savings went to 0, and he went bankrupt. It all started in 1996 when the superstar started a company called ABCL.
Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited sought a loan of around 22 crore from Canara Bank to start his company. And against this huge loan, guess what was the guarantee? It was his very own abode, Prateeksha, that was priced at around 10+ crore in those days.
ABCL started functioning and planned huge projects. It was valued at 60 crore in 1996, according to a report in Business Insider, and Big B planned to take it to 1000 crore worth by the year 2000. While this projection was highly ambitious, so were his projects that were planned.
While ABCL was valued at 60 crore, the Silsila superstar faced losses worth 70 crore with an additional loan of 22 crore. He was on the verge of selling off Prateeksha to meet the demands of his creditors. But do you know what pushed him into such a deep mess? Well, it was the huge and ambitious projects that never hit the expected results.
Here are the five projects that paved the way for ABCL’s demise and Amitabh Bachchan’s brutal downfall:
1. Miss World Pageant
The Piku actor’s company was responsible for bringing the Miss World Pageant to India. A Gala Miss World was organized in Bengaluru. The very event that started the financial crunch for the company. So much so that it was not able to pay the salaries of the employees and professionals who were hired for the event, even though the event could not garner any attention.
2. Aby Baby – The Music Album
Amitabh Bachchan loved singing, and he tried his hands at a music album as well that was released in 1996 and was titled Aby Baby. The music for this album was arranged and composed by Bally Sagoo. One of the songs, Ek Rahe Beer, also made its way to popular charts. However, the project incurred further losses. Problem recalling it? Have a look. Ignore the bad quality, though, as the memory is priceless!
3. Mrityudaata – 1997
After facing losses with Miss World, ABCL produced Mritydaata in 1997. The film was made on a reported budget of 13 crore and collected only around 8 crore at the box office! This inflated the already incurred losses by the company.
4. Saat Rang Ke Sapne – 1998
Not learning anything from its failure, ABCL next produced Saat Rang Ke Sapne, which was helmed by Priyadarshan and starred Juhi Chawla and Arvind Swamy. The film collected only 1.66 crore at the box office.
5. Final Nail In The Coffin
Finally, it was the film Naam Kya Hai, which starred Mukul Dev in the lead. The film was made, but it was never released. Before Amitabh Bachchan realized he was deep in losses and around 90 crore debt!
In 2000, he was offered Kaun Banega Crorepati, which eased his financial trouble, but it was eventually Yash Chopra‘s Mohabbatein that could save Amitabh Bachchan sinking financially and professionally.
The superstar currently enjoys a net worth of above 200+ crore, according to recent declarations made by Jaya Bachchan.
