Javed Akhtar shares why he asked Amitabh Bachchan to sign Zanjeer without conditions. ( Photo Credit – YouTube; Instagram )
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Amitabh Bachchan possibly wouldn’t have reached the pinnacle of his Bollywood career had there been no Zanjeer (1973) in his life. The Salim-Javed-written drama was a game-changer for Shahenshah, which initiated a new era of Amitabh Bachchan in the Hindi film industry. However, 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 at the box office one after the other. He wasn’t a big deal either then, and Rajesh Khanna was ruling the industry.
However, writers Salim-Javed saw something special in him, and when they were done with Zanjeer’s writing, they wanted Bachchan to do it. However, the movie’s director, Prakash Mehra, wasn’t willing to sign him as he wasn’t a prominent actor then.
Further, many leading actors had already denied Zanjeer, as the character of an “angry young man” didn’t resonate well with them, as 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 one day and told him that there was a script ready and that they wanted him to take up that role.
“I told him, ‘I will narrate the script to you, and I will also have you 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 looked at me and said, ‘Do you think I can pull this off?’ Because till that time, he was playing poet, doctor, writer, and so on. I said, ‘Nobody can do this better than you. No one,’” 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 some of Amitabh Bachchan’s films, which didn’t do well. They were left awe-struck with his craft and had decided to bring him on board for Zanjeer.
As fate would have it, Zanjeer turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters of his career. Salim-Javed also won the Filmfare Award for Best Story and Screen Direction for this movie. The movie also established Amitabh Bachchan as one of the leading actors in the industry, who would go on to deliver iconic films like Abhimaan (1973), Namak Haraam (1973), and Sholay (1975).
