The 1973 film 'Zanjeer' made Amitabh Bachchan a star. Recently, Javed Akhtar spoke about his first meeting with Amitabh Bachchan and the reason behind casting him for 'Zanjeer'. Javed Akhtar said that when he and Salim Khan wrote the script for 'Zanjeer', most of the big stars at that time refused to do the film. While most of Amitabh Bachchan's films were flops at the box office.
In a conversation with IFP, Javed Akhtar said, 'I remember well, we were shooting the last scene of the film 'Sita Aur Geeta'. The film was nearing completion, maybe some patchwork was going on or the shooting of 'Andaz' was going on. At the same time, the shooting of the film Anand was going on upstairs at Mohan Studios. We only knew Rajesh Khanna when we went somewhere far away on the sets. But there was also a tall and thin young boy sitting there. Someone said that he is Harivansh Rai Bachchan's son Amitabh. During that time I met Amitabh Bachchan for the first time.
Pran and Amitabh Bachchan face off in the iconic police station scene of 'Zanjeer'
Javed Akhtar said, 'I watched some of Amitabh Bachchan's films, which were not good. Also saw some of his scenes in 'Parwana', 'Bombay to Goa' and 'Guddi'. After watching these films, Salim Khan and I realized that this guy is very talented. We both said, wow, what a good actor! However, the sad thing was that his films were not very successful at that time.'
Javed Akhtar said, 'Zanjeer movie script was ready. Prakash Mehra was going to make. But there was no main hero for the film. No one was ready to do this film, because it was Rajesh Khanna's era at that time. Movies also had romance and music. But our script had no songs for the hero, no romance, no fun scenes, so no one was ready to do the film.'
Pran, Jaya Bhaduri and Amitabh Bachchan in a scene from 'Zanjeer'
He said, 'We repeatedly asked Prakash Mehra to cast Amitabh Bachchan, but every time he agreed to cast him, one of Amitabh's films would flop and he would be disappointed. But finally when there was no other option we had to cast Amitabh Bachchan.
Javed Akhtar said, 'One day I found Amitabh Bachchan's phone number and called him. I told them you may not remember me, but I have a script. I want to tell you that. He didn't have much work so he said, now you can come. I went to him and said I will narrate the script to you and also introduce you to the producer, but please don't put any conditions on it, just do the film. They agreed to this.
Two directors with whom Amitabh gave the most superhit films: Prakash Mehra (left) and Manmohan Desai (right)
Javed said, 'When I narrated the script, he asked me, do you think I can do it? When I said no one can do better than you, Javed Akhtar said, whether Amitabh did Zanjeer or not, he would have definitely succeeded because he has immense talent.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
