Amitabh Bachchan on Sunday, 22 June revealed that he had spent part of his evening watching a documentary on World War II narrated by Hollywood actor Tom Hanks — and the experience left the veteran actor deeply unsettled. Writing on his personal blog, the megastar reflected on the staggering human cost of the conflict, the futility of war, and whether humanity has genuinely absorbed the lessons of that catastrophe.

What Bachchan Watched and Wrote

The post came alongside a series of images from his regular Sunday fan meet-up at the gates of his residence, Jalsa, where he also noted that Lord Hanuman's Sahastra Pujan had been performed. He then turned reflective, writing: 'And later spent some time in watching the documentary on World War 2, through the narration of Tom Hanks, and realising the futility of war, of millions of innocent lives lost — for what.. On the whim and fancy ego of one man — often.. to what end..'

Bachchan described how the film traced the conflict from the invasion of Poland in 1939 through to the end of the war and the dawn of the atomic age, with an emphasis not merely on strategy and leadership but on the suffering of ordinary soldiers and civilians — an angle he found particularly affecting.

The Human Cost That Struck Him

The actor highlighted the documentary's stark accounting of casualties, noting that more than 20 million Soviet people were killed in the war, including approximately 10 million soldiers, compared with around 400,000 US military casualties. He also acknowledged the losses suffered by other Allied nations and Axis powers alike.

In his blog, Bachchan wrote: 'Tens of millions died, yet almost every nation involved believed it was acting out of necessity. Cities were destroyed, populations displaced, and entire communities erased. Even the victors suffered enormous losses and trauma.' He called the documentary a 'remarkably complete, humanising portrait of what total war truly costs.'

Reflections on War, Power, and Memory

Bachchan invoked the well-known observation that 'the old men declare war, but it is the youth that must fight and die' — a line he used to underscore the generational burden imposed by conflict. He wrote of the young, newly recruited soldiers: 'the young smiling faces of the newly recruited fighting squads.. an adventure for them for the first time — until reality strikes.'

He also pointed to the uncomfortable aftermath of the war — that while it ended one tyranny, it ushered in new tensions, including the Cold War and the spectre of nuclear weapons. The war, he noted, may sometimes be viewed as unavoidable, but is 'never glorious when viewed from the perspective of those who must endure it.'

Bachchan's Closing Question

The actor ended his reflection with a pointed question that he left deliberately unanswered: 'World War II… the war that changed the world. Has it??' The query, set against the backdrop of ongoing global conflicts, reads as both a personal meditation and a broader challenge to contemporary audiences. Bachchan called the documentary a 'powerful reminder' of what total war truly exacts — and questioned whether those lessons are at risk of being forgotten in a new century.