Amitah Bachchan was not First Choice: Whenever the names of veteran actors of Hindi cinema are taken, the list is incomplete without the name of Amitabh Bachchan. Actually, Amitabh Bachchan’s first film came in 1969 which was a superflop. After this he did many films but he got recognition from ‘Zanjeer’ released in 1973. After this, two such films came in 1975 which changed the fortunes of Amitabh Bachchan. The names of those two blockbuster films are ‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’.
‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’ came in 1975 and both ruled the box office. You may hardly know that Amitabh Bachchan was not the first choice of the makers in this film. In fact, earlier talks were going on with someone else but luckily these films came to Amitabh Bachchan.
Who was the first choice for ‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’?
According to media reports, not Amitabh Bachchan but Shatrughan Sinha was the first choice for the directors of ‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’. Shatrughan Sinha gave many hit films in the 70’s due to which the makers wanted to work with him. The father of Ramesh Sippy, the producer of the film Sholay, had suggested Shatrughan Sinha’s name for the role of Amitabh Bachchan, but due to some reason things did not work out, so on the suggestion of Salim-Javed, this film went to Amitabh Bachchan.
According to reports, when Yash Chopra heard the script of ‘Deewar’ from Salim-Javed, he selected Shatrughan Sinha for Amitabh’s role. Shatrughan Sinha kept the script with him for 6 months and could not read it. Shatrughan Sinha himself had revealed this in an interview. Later that script went to Amitabh Bachchan.
At that time, Salim-Javed’s first choice was Amitabh Bachchan, the story of ‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’ was written by Salim-Javed. Because of this, both the films went to Big B and everyone knows the box office results. Both the films created history at the box office and Amitabh Bachchan got the title of Angry Young Man.
Shatrughan Sinha has not seen ‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’
According to reports, Shatrughan Sinha had told that he has not seen ‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’ yet. Later he regretted that such great films had slipped away from his hands. But he also mentioned that he was happy with Amitabh’s success and he deserved to do these roles.
