Teji Bachchan

Teji Bachchan (Punjabi: ਤੇਜੀ ਬਚੱਨ (Gurmukhi), تیجی بچن (Shahmukhi); Hindi: तेजी बच्चन) (12 August 1914 – 21 December 2007), the wife of Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and mother of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, was a social activist. She was also known to be a confidant of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.^[1]

Biography

Born into a Khatri Punjabi family^[2] in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), Punjab, British India

She met Harivansh, then an English teacher, at the Allahabad University while she was teaching Psychology at Khoob Chand Degree College, Lahore, British India (now in Pakistan). The couple got married in Allahbad in 1941.

Bachchan became a home maker and lover of stage. During his lifetime, Harivansh remained completely engrossed in his muse, leaving his wife to handle all family matters. Even in social engagements, the poet willingly played second fiddle to his gregarious wife.^[1]

The Bachchans had two sons: Amitabh Bachchan and Ajitabh Bachchan. Amitabh is a Bollywood actor^[3] and his wife Jaya Bachchan is also film actress and Member of Parliament.

The Bachchans were a part of India’s literary circuit and high society.^[4] The couple sang at events.^[5]

Teji played Lady Macbeth in her husband’s Hindi adaptation of Macbeth. They also played a cameo appearance in Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kabhie.

She was also appointed as one of the Directors of the Film Finance Corporation in 1973. The Film Finance Corporation of India (and its successor National Film Development Corporation of India), a Government of India undertaking's main objective was to finance the production of purposeful films of good quality with a view to improving the general standards of the medium.^[6]

Teji Bachchan was in the Lilavati Hospital for almost the whole of 2007 and she was shifted to the ICU in November 2007 after her condition became worse.^[7] She died at the age of 93 on 21 December 2007 after prolonged illness.^[8]

See also

• Bachchan family

References