This film of Amitabh Bachchan was released 50 years ago
Amitabh Bachchan gave many great films in the 70s. 1975 was the year which proved to be the luckiest for Amitabh Bachchan. This year he gave back to back hit films. At one time, the film producers and directors who were reluctant to sign Amitabh Bachchan in their films, started believing that whichever film Amitabh Bachchan stars in is sure to be a hit. ‘Zanjeer’, released in 1973, was the film which changed the fortunes of Amitabh Bachchan. ‘Sholay’, released in 1975, created history, but before ‘Sholay’ there was a film in which the makers of the film were hesitant in casting Amitabh Bachchan.
Zanjeer changed the direction of Big B’s career
Amitabh Bachchan Big B started his career with ‘Saat Hindustani’ and this film failed at the box office. Even after this, many of Amitabh Bachchan’s films were flops. ‘Zanjeer’ released in 1973 proved to be the first successful film of his career. Till date, no film has been able to break the record of ‘Sholay’ released in 1975. But, the makers did not want to cast Big B in the superhit film ‘Deewar’ which came before Sholay.
Amitabh Bachchan was not the first choice for Deewaar
In this film, Shashi Kapoor, Neetu Singh and Parveen Babi were in lead roles along with Amitabh Bachchan. Not only the story of Deewaar, its dialogues and songs had made people its fans. This film is none other than ‘Deewar’. Javed-Salim tried to depict the pain and struggle of the middle class in this film.
When Amitabh Bachchan’s career was in trouble
Late filmmaker Shyam Benegal mentioned in the documentary ‘Angry Young Men’ based on Salim-Javed’s professional partnership that Amitabh Bachchan was not the makers’ first choice for Deewaar. He has written – At the time of ‘Deewar’, Amitabh Bachchan’s career was in trouble. By then he had given many flop films. Nevertheless, Salim-Javed saw his potential and cast him in the role of Vijay in the 1973 hit ‘Zanjeer’. After Zanjeer, he again cast Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Deewar’ and this time too his character’s name was Vijay. Salim-Javed’s films made Amitabh the biggest superstar of Bollywood.
How did Amitabh Bachchan replace Rajesh Khanna?
In an old interview of Lehren Podcast, Salim Khan had told that Rajesh Khanna was the first choice for this film. Recalling the story of how Amitabh Bachchan entered the film, he had said – ‘There are things like ideal and compromising casting. We felt that there could be no one better than Amitabh for ‘Deewar’. ‘Deewar’ producer Gulshan Rai had signed Rajesh Khanna, but we felt that Amitabh Bachchan would fit the story. Then we insisted and said that if you want to make this film then only Amitabh will work in it. This film probably would have worked well with another star, but this is not ideal casting. It would have been just a compromise.
Fourth highest grossing film of 1975
Let us tell you, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar had written the story of ‘Deewar’ in just 18 days. The film cemented Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ image in Bollywood and also established him as the new superstar of the 70s. The film became the fourth highest grossing film of 1975.
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