Amitabh Bachchan broke up with his first love Maya, says celebrity biographer: ‘She would scold him in front of people’

Amitabh Bachchan reportedly fell in love with a woman named Maya when he was living in Kolkata. He broke up with her before the release of his debut film.

Amitabh Bachchan made his debut in the movies in 1969. (Photo: Express Archives)

Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan have been married for over 50 years after they first met on the set of the 1971 film Guddi, but Jaya wasn’t the first woman that he fell in love with. Celebrity biographer Hanif Zaveri, in a recent interview, shared the story of Amitabh Bachchan’s first love, and what led to his break up with that woman. He shared that the two fell in love before Amitabh’s move to Bombay (now Mumbai), but broke up even before the release of his first film, Saat Hindustani.

In a chat with the YouTube channel Meri Saheli, Hanif shared that his love story with a woman named Maya started back when he was working in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and earned around Rs 250-300 per month. “She was working at British Airways at the time. Amitabh Bachchan really loved her, and she did too,” Hanif shared. He added that after his Kolkata job, Amitabh moved to Mumbai to find work in the movies and was initially staying at a bungalow in Juhu, which belonged to his mother Teji Bachchan’s friend. Since Maya would visit him so often, and his mother’s friend lived in the same house, Amitabh was “scared” of his mother finding out about his relationship. “So he decided to move out of the house,” Hanif said.

At this time, Amitabh was working on his debut film Saat Hindustani, where he was sharing the screen with Mehmood’s brother Anwar Ali. “He told Anwar about his worries and Anwar understood his concerns. So Anwar gave him a place to stay at his house,” he shared and added that Anwar had gotten an apartment from Mehmood, and Amitabh stayed in this house for a while.

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“He and Maya were together for a while and perhaps, they could have gotten married also but Amitabh wasn’t stable in his career at the time,” he said and added, “In those days, Amitabh was a very shy man and Maya was quite cunning. Sometimes, she wouldn’t even bother who was sitting with him and would speak with him as she wanted, she would scold him too. Anwar Ali, and all of Amitabh’s other friends didn’t really like this. And Amitabh was also getting nervous about this.”

Hanif recalled Anwar talking to him about his and shared, “He told me that when they were shooting in Goa for Saat Hindustani, he told Amitabh to break up with Maya. He felt that she wouldn’t fit into Bachchan’s family and if Amitabh was to go ahead in the movies, problems might increase. And Amitabh also felt that there was something missing. Eventually, he started distancing himself from Maya and they broke up, and went their separate ways.”

Amitabh’s debut film was released in 1969. He later married Jaya in 1973.

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