Earlier on Saturday's programme, Dr Bachchan's biographer, Pushpa Bharati recalled many people asking Amitabh if he was interested in writing poetry.
Amitabh did write a short poem in English, she said, recalling the weeks he had spent in a Mumbai hospital following an accident during the shooting of a film. She read from the poem, and then read the translation by Amitabh's father.
When she told Amitabh that it was a beautiful poem, the actor smiled and said: "It is babuji's anuvadh (translation) that makes it beautiful."
But Amitabh was indeed a poet, she said. Instead of writing, he concentrated on his performances, she said, adding that the senior Bachchan was immensely proud of his son's work.
Right from the time Amitabh was a boy, his father had the feeling that he would be an artist.
A day before the event, a reporter asked Amitabh if he had ever thought of turning to poetry to which the actor laughingly replied: "My mother used to say it was enough we had one poet at home."
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