Amitabh Bachchan possibly wouldn’t have reached the top of his Bollywood profession had there been no Zanjeer (1973) in his life. The Salim-Javed-written drama was a game-changer for Shahenshah, which initiated a brand new era of Amitabh Bachchan within the Hindi film industry. Nonetheless, not many fans wouldn’t know that Bachchan was reluctant to do the movie.
Yes, you heard it right! Amitabh Bachchan wasn’t very willing to do it as his movies were tanking on the box office one after the opposite. He wasn’t a giant deal either then, and Rajesh Khanna was ruling the industry.
Nonetheless, writers Salim-Javed saw something special in him, and once they were done with Zanjeer’s writing, they wanted Bachchan to do it. Nonetheless, the movie’s director, Prakash Mehra, wasn’t willing to sign him as he wasn’t a outstanding actor then.
Further, many leading actors had already denied Zanjeer, because the character of an “indignant young man” didn’t resonate well with them, because the “romantic lover” boy persona perpetuated by Rajesh Khanna was in fashion then.
In a recent conversation with IFP, Javed Akhtar said that he called Bachchan at some point and told him that there was a script ready and that they wanted him to take up that role.
“I told him, ‘I’ll narrate the script to you, and I will even have you ever meet the producer, but please don’t discuss any terms and discussions with the producer; just blindly do the film.’ He asked me to narrate the story to him, and I did. I still remember very clearly that he checked out me and said, ‘Do you think that I can pull this off?’ Because till that point, he was playing poet, doctor, author, and so forth. I said, ‘No person can do that higher than you. Nobody,’” Indian Express quoted Javed Akhtar. They asked him to do the film unthinkingly because rejecting would have been a lost opportunity for him.
Javed Akhtar also revealed they were stunned after watching a few of Amitabh Bachchan’s movies, which didn’t do well. They were left awe-struck together with his craft and had decided to bring him on board for Zanjeer.
As fate would have it, Zanjeer turned out to be considered one of the most important blockbusters of his profession. Salim-Javed also won the Filmfare Award for Best Story and Screen Direction for this movie. The movie also established Amitabh Bachchan as considered one of the leading actors within the industry, who would go on to deliver iconic movies like Abhimaan (1973), Namak Haraam (1973), and Sholay (1975).
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