The former Samajwadi Party leader was very close to the Bachchan family for many years before their fallout. (Archive)
Former Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh Tuesday apologised to veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan for his much-publicised fallout with the Bachchan family. Singh, who was diagnosed with a kidney ailment, said he is “fighting a battle of life and death” and regrets his “overreaction against Amit ji and family.”
“Today is my father’s death anniversary and I got a message for the same from Amitabh Bachchan ji. At this stage of life when I am fighting a battle of life and death, I regret my overreaction against Amit ji and family. God bless them all,” he tweeted.
Today is my father’s death anniversary & I got a message for the same from @SrBachchan ji. At this stage of life when I am fighting a battle of life & death I regret for my over reaction against Amit ji & family. God bless them all.
— Amar Singh (@AmarSinghTweets) February 18, 2020
The former Samajwadi Party leader was very close to the Bachchan family for many years, calling himself Bachchan’s brother. They had a fallout in 2010 when Singh was expelled from the Samajwadi Party. Jaya Bachchan, however, chose to avoid siding with Amar Singh and retained her association with the party.
Singh had made it clear that he did not quite appreciate Jaya Bachchan, who was brought into politics by him, for siding with SP chief Mulayam Singh and for staying back in a party that “humiliated” him.
In a 2017 interview to ABP news, Singh claimed that Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan were living separately. “Even before I met Amitabh Bachchan, he and Jaya Bachchan were living separately. In their two bungalows, Janak and Pratiksha. People blame me for every possible problem in the country. I am not even responsible for the rift between Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan,” he said.
Singh had earlier made a statement saying that it was Amitabh Bachchan’s decision to not remain friends with him. He had also claimed that Bachchan had warned him to not accept Jaya Bachchan in his political party considering her “inconsistent nature and habits”. “But I didn’t adhere to his noble advice,” he had said. When asked about Singh’s remarks, Bachchan said the politician has every right to say what he wants.
In the same year, Bachchan’s name had also come up in the controversial Panama papers leak of tax documents of offshore companies and accounts of the rich. Singh had then criticised the “stoic silence” of the actor and asked him to come clean on his alleged links.