The twists and curves in Amitabh Bachchan’s life graph can give Mallika Sherawat a run for her money. And now with both money and face stuck in a doubtful land deal in Uttar Pradesh, Bachchan is dodging more bullets than he did in Don.

Till the other day, all was well in the Bachchan world. His films were hits, his face and baritone sold a spectrum of brands, and his son, Abhishek, had married Aishwariya Rai, often described as the most beautiful woman in the world.

But Bachchan’s happiness graph seems to have taken a sudden southward turn. The “farmer” episode has given him bad press. His exclusive guest list for his son’s wedding — one that left out some of the top names in the Hindi film industry — has won him some enemies. The Mumbai grapevine has it that some of the big heroes have refused to pair up with Rai, and are turning down offers to act in films that also feature Abhishek. And if this wasn’t all, Bachchan’s friends, Samajwadi Party leaders Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh, have lost Uttar Pradesh.

But it’s Bachchan’s wish to be regarded as a farmer that’s drawn the superhero into an ugly controversy. On June 1, a Faizabad court quashed a land allotment for Bachchan in Barabanki district. Bachchan had bought prime agricultural land that belonged to a gram sabha and can only be acquired by a farmer. Bachchan was also in a bit of a bother when his 24 acres in Lonavala were threatened as he wasn’t a farmer in Maharashtra either — though the records described him as one.

The last time 64-year-old Bachchan was in trouble was in 1997, when his ambitious project, the Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited, fell through, leaving the family in a financial mess. While that mess was sorted out with the help of Amar Singh, the current tide of bad luck is still to be overridden.

It started with a media blowout over the Abhi-Ash wedding. Bachchan’s frenetic dashes to the temples and offering of 100 kg of gold and money to one of the country’s richest trusts didn’t exactly sit well with the social observers. “When I hear Bachchan, the son of Harivansh Rai, rushing from temple to temple, engaging in land scams and superstitions, I feel a sense of disappointment,” says film-maker Shohini Ghosh, who teaches media studies in Jamia Millia Islamia University.

In recent films such as Baabul, where he plays the role of a convention-bashing father-in-law, focused on making his widowed daughter-in-law’s love life blossom, and Nishabd, where Bachchan chases a teenage, sprinkler-wet Lolita, Bachchan is an overgrown rebel. But in real life, with dollops of vermilion splashed across his forehead and rings on his fingers, Bachchan is increasingly being seen as removed from his roles. “The dichotomy between his real life image and his film career really doesn’t matter because his film image hardly exists anymore,” says JNU professor and commentator Pushpesh Pant.

And while journalists were being thrown out of the year’s biggest wedding, little did he know that the same would happen to Mulayam Singh in UP. That was the second blow. With that, his dubious land deals in UP also came to light. A political observer says, “It is obvious that Bachchan’s consultants not only helped him get the land but also propagated the sentiment that it is there to last.” It is no secret that Bachchan’s past departures from cinema into politics have sunk, deep and fast. “He is a hugely talented actor but he doesn’t understand politics or legal and governmental workings. He and politics are just not made for each other,” says the political observer.

There isn’t much love lost between Bachchan and the rest of the film fraternity either. While the Shah Rukh Khan and Bachchan tension is palpable enough, the Big B’s string-pulling to prop up his son’s career (there were full-page advertisements in newspapers after the release of the Ahibshek-starrer, Guru, congratulating him on his performance) hasn’t gone down well either.

So there are reports of some top young actors refusing to work with the younger Bachchan. According to an insider, Abhishek asked for Rs 1.5 crore for an act in a film awards ceremony. “And then Shah Rukh offered to do it for free.”

The SRK-BIG B divide started at a Dubai event in 2004 when Bachchan and Amar Singh were given back row seats. Singh had an argument with the organisers, while Shah Rukh Khan supported them. Months later, after Bachchan stopped his Kaun Banega Crorepati series on television because of health problems, it was Shah Rukh Khan who replaced him. And then last year, the younger hero actually acted as and in Don, a remake of the 1978 Bachchan hit.

Some in the industry are standing by Bachchan. Ram Gopal Varma, who was to work in Time Machine with Shah Rukh Khan, has dropped Khan from the project. The film was cancelled after Varma said that Khan was not his type of hero.

Another film, Bhootnath, produced by Baghbaan and Baabul producer Ravi Chopra and directed by Khan’s former production assistant, Vivek Sharma, was also stuck for a long time. The reason, say industrywallahs, was that Bachchan was the hero of the film and Khan had a guest role in it. “It is like a cold war. Whenever a Bachchan film’s been released, there’s been some problem or the other,” says a Mumbai industry source.

But the Shahenshah versus Baadshah contest continues. Both are planning to go on a performance tour of the USA, UK, Canada and the Gulf — and around the same time — in mid 2008. Khan will be accompanied by Rani Mukherji, Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta. The Big B’s One Amazing Night will have Bachchan himself, son Abhishek and bahu Aishwarya.

While Khan is stepping into Bachchan’s shoes by picking on ICICI ads, KBC and Don, Bachchan is planning to act in another Don sequel to be made by Chandra Barot.

Picking up sequels to each other’s films might be the way to get back at your foes in the film arena. In real life though, a remake — of the unfortunate times in Bachchan’s colourful life — is something that Bollywood's Grand Old Angry Young Man will not want to pick up in a hurry.