Megastar Amitabh Bachchan had his share of struggles in the Hindi film industry before becoming one of the biggest actors in Indian cinema. The actor delivered 16 consecutive flops before writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar (Salim-Javed) saved his career by offering him Zanjeer in 1973. During his flop streak, Big B was replaced in several films. In a recent interaction, renowned director-editor Aruna Raje Patil shared one such incident when Amitabh was replaced by Vinod Khanna in the 1976 film Shaque.
Recalling the incident, Aruna shared that the producer was adamant about not casting Big B in the film due to his poor box office record at the time. She said during an appearance on the YouTube channel Bollywood Crypt, “Our first casting was Amitabh Bachchan and Waheeda Rehman. (Around that time) Amitabh’s films flopped and the producer NB Kamat just didn’t want him. He told us, ‘The film won’t happen’. So we said, ‘All right, who else then?’ He asked us to look for another actor, and a known one. So, we thought of Vinod Khanna and Kamat got a meeting with him for us and he agreed to do the film straight off.”
In an old interview with The Filmy Charcha, veteran actor Raza Murad had also shared a similar incident when Amitabh Bachchan was ousted from the film Duniya Ka Mela due to his string of flops. He said, “Amitabh Bachchan was thrown out of Duniya Ka Mela. The makers replaced him with Sanjay Khan. 16 of his films had flopped. Distributors said, ‘nobody will turn up to theatres if he stars in a film’. At that time, his luck was not with him. But when the luck was in his favour, everything fell in place.”
It was indeed luck that led Amitabh to bag Zanjeer, as all the other superstars of that time had refused to star in the film. Raza recalled the same and said, “When director Prakash Mehra wanted to make Zanjeer, he went to Dilip Kumar, Dharmendra, Dev Anand, Rajkumar, and they all refused for some or the other reason. The subject was extremely hero-oriented, yet these superstars rejected it. Nobody knows why, but one can say that the luck wanted Amitabh Bachchan to lead the film. When nobody wanted him, and Prakash Mehra had no option, Jaya Bachchan (then Jaya Bhaduri) recommended that the director take Amitabh Bachchan, and the rest is history.”
After Zanjeer, Amitabh went on to deliver many iconic films with Salim-Javed, including Deewaar, Sholay, Kaala Patthar, Trishul, Majboor, Shakti, and Don, cementing his place as the leading star of Indian cinema.
