Why did Big B take so much time to give the bungalow 'Prateeksha' to daughter Shweta, know the inside truth!

Now everyone knows that Amitabh Bachchan has gifted his Juhu bungalow to 'Prateeksha' daughter Shweta Bachchan Nanda. The value of his bungalow is estimated at Rs 50 crore, for which senior Bachchan has paid Rs 50.56 lakh tax this month. It is not about the importance of gifts and bungalows, there are some other things worth knowing here.

Amitabh Bachchan wanted to give a big gift to his daughter Shweta on the occasion of her marriage, which he could not give. Shweta was married to Nikhil Nanda in the year 1997. Shweta was getting married in a big house, hence the issue was not about dowry but about status. Amitabh was a big film star and his daughter's father-in-law Rajan Nanda was related to both the film and business worlds. Nanda was the owner of the escort company. Shweta was getting married to Nikki i.e. Nikhil Nanda of his company's popular brand 'Nikki Tasha'. The Nanda family's connection with the film was such that Nikhil's mother Ritu Nanda was the daughter of famous filmmaker Raj Kapoor. Nikhil's great-grandfather was Prithvi Raj Kapoor, maternal grandparents were Raj, Shammi, and Shashi, and maternal uncles Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Rajiv Kapoor, and cousins are Ranbir Kapoor, Karishma, and Kareena.

His grandmother's brothers Premnath, Rajendra Nath, Narendra Nath, and his sons Prem Kishan, Monty... that is, the big film family like a big banyan tree has been the Nanda family associated with 'RK'! (And, now in this series, Saif Ali Khan, Sharmila Tagore, Alia Bhatt, Mahesh Bhatt, and many more names get added to the list of films). Amitabh Bachchan was just a film star then, he was also a faded star (at that time). His star image had deteriorated in the 90s and he wanted to bring about a change, he brought this change by starting ABCL (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited) in 1994. ABCL had a good start. The company's TV show - the sitcom 'Dekh Bhai Dekh' became popular. It took the distribution rights of Mani Ratnam's film 'Bombay' and both these shows earned a lot. ABCL became involved in filmmaking, started doing different experiments, and started incurring losses. On the advice of his people, he organized the "Miss World" beauty pageant in Bangalore (1996). In all this, he kept putting money into the market and incurred huge losses. Borrowers started asking for money, and his bungalow 'Prateeksha' was up for auction. It was during this period of decline that Shweta got married (1997). It is said that the Allahabadi father was deeply saddened about not being able to give anything to his daughter at that time.

Rich in courage and empty of pocket, Amitabh agreed to become the TV host of 'Kaun Banega Crore Patti'. He went to Yash Chopra asking for work and agreed to work in the film with Shahrukh. Fate again favored him. KBC reduced the burden. He again dominated in the second innings and paid off the debts of all the lenders. It is said that Big B had a debt of more than Rs 90 crore and a bank had filed an application in the High Court to auction 'Prateeksha' to recover Rs 35 crore. At that time, SP leader Amar Singh had supported him, and 'Prateeksha' was saved from the auction. Later things changed. Big B bought 'Jalsa' and today he has five bungalows. 'Prateeksha' is their first house which was built by Amitabh and Jaya by purchasing a cottage in Juhu. His father (famous poet Bachchan) and mother (Teji) also stayed here. The bungalow was named "Prateeksha" by poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan from one of his poems - "Welcome for all here, wait for none!"

Now Amitabh has made his daughter Shweta the owner of that 'Prateeksha' bungalow. Shweta Bachchan Nanda is a writer, who writes columns, her best-seller novel is "Paradise Towers" and she is an entrepreneur. These days Shweta Bachchan is living in Mumbai. Her daughter Navya Naveli is interested in ramp modeling and her son Agastya Nanda is the hero of Zoya Akhtar's film 'Archie'. The news is that Shweta is going to live in Mumbai and seeing this is the right time, Amitabh Bachchan felt that now is the time when he should fulfill his wish of not being able to give anything to his daughter. Amitabh has now gifted "Prateeksha" to daughter Shweta, which is an album of his memories.

- Sharad Rai