Amitabh Bachchan’s bungalow Prateeksha didn’t have windows or curtains when he first moved in with Jaya Bachchan: ‘He was hardly ever there’

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In the same article, however, she wrote that Amitabh remained largely unchanged after making it big. “After Abhishek was born, Amitji and I would try to snatch time together. He was now into bigger and bigger blockbusters but on the homefront he would be normal and unaffected. Almost imperceptibly his confidence was increasing,” she recalled, adding, “Meanwhile I was getting more and more distanced from the film industry. He did not bring his work home and I was blissfully unaware of the number of films he was signing and whom he was working with. I spared him the nagging inquiries.”

Actor Amitabh Bachchan’s house in Juhu Prateeksha. Express archive photo by Mahendra Parikh on 01.11.1999

The name Prateeksha was given to the house by Amitabh’s father, the poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan. He’d shared this story in an episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati. “Prateeksha is a very beautiful name. People ask me why we named the house Prateeksha, and I tell them that I did not choose it, my father did. I asked him why he named the house Prateeksha, and he has a poem with a line that goes — ‘Swagat sabke liye hain par nahi hain kisi ke liye Prateeksha (It is welcome to all, but wait for none).’”

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Canara Bank, to whom Amitabh Bachchan’s AB Crop. Ltd. owed Rs. 10 crore, was looking to attach the superstar’s bungalow, Prateeksha. Express archive photo by Neeraj Priyadarshi 9.4.99

After the death of his parents, the Bachchan family moved into a new bungalow named Jalsa, which is in the same compound. Prateeksha remained shut for decades, but when Abhishek and Aishwarya’s daughter Aaradhya was born in 2007, they brought her to Prateeksha first. Bachchan wrote in his blog, “Today, we brought bitiya (Aaradhya) home. We are very happy. Hamare ghar Laxmi aayi hai, Abhishek, Aishwarya and bitiya are all well and in good health. Life changes when a new life comes to your house. I would say Laxmi Ratna has arrived in our house. We first took her to Prateeksha because that is our first home. After taking blessings from my ma and babuji, we have come to Jalsa.”