50 Years of Film Zanjeer: Today the story is of a film in which no superstar was ready to act. The person who was chosen as the hero of the film, had suffered the pain of 12 consecutive flops before that. In such a situation, no heroine was ready to work with that hero. Just say that from the beginning of the story till the end of the film, the script was also written by Salim-Javed. Today the same film has completed 50 years of its journey, so let’s know how this film tied the fate of Amitabh with ‘Zanjeer’ who had achieved the title of superflop.
This is how luck came in the fist from ‘Zanjeer’
Amitabh Bachchan… Be it acting or voice… Even at the age of 80, this person gives tough competition to new artists, but every phase in Big B’s life was not like this. There was a time when no one was ready to give him work. Then such a film came in Amitabh’s life, which not only made his luck shine like a diamond, but also gave him the status of superstar along with the title of Angry Youngman.
12 films of Amitabh had flopped
Amitabh started his career with Saat Hindustani, but this film could not even ask for water at the box office. After this, 11 consecutive films were also nothing special for Amitabh. Then the chain came in his fate, but its story is also very interesting. Actually, Amitabh did not get ‘Zanjeer’ so easily and he was not the first choice for this film at all.
How did the chain come in Amitabh’s fate?
When director Prakash Mehra was choosing the star cast of Zanjeer, he had no doubt about the role of the hero. He had sealed the name of Bollywood’s handsome hunk Dharmendra at that time and wanted to do this film with him anyway. Now the twist in the story comes from here only. Dharmendra was busy shooting for another film, so he flatly refused to be chained. Dharmendra has expressed his regret of leaving the film many times.
Dharmendra had also talked about this in Aap Ki Adalat. He had said, ‘My cousin sister approached Prakash Mehra for a film but he refused. Regarding this, he swore to me that I should not work in his film. My family members also refused.
On Dharmendra’s refusal, Prakash Mehra started looking for new options for the hero. He met veteran actors like Rajkumar and Dev Anand and narrated the story of the film. However, no one could support Prakash Mehra, because everyone had their own reasons for not doing this film.
Now the biggest problem in front of Prakash Mehra was that his script was ready, but the strongest link of the film i.e. the search for the hero could not be completed and his journey was completed by bus from Bombay to Goa. Actually, Prakash Mehra was watching the film Bombay to Goa one day. When he saw the acting of Amitabh Bachchan, he shouted loudly that he had found a hero for ‘Zanjeer’.
No actress wanted to work with flop hero Amitabh
The hero had been found for Zanjeer, but it was not easy to choose the heroine. The first thing was that the character of the actress was negligible in the story of the film. At the same time, no actress of that era was ready to risk her career by working with an artist who had given 12 consecutive flops. Salim and Javed, who considered themselves more important than the hero in Zanjeer by writing excellent dialogues, solved this problem as well. In fact, earlier he had suggested the name of the hero i.e. Amitabh Bachchan to Prakash Mehra and now he himself has taken over the responsibility of impressing the heroine.
Salim Khan himself reached the flat of Jaya Bhaduri, the veteran actress of that era, to narrate the script. Referring to this meeting in an interview, Salim Khan had said, ‘I had reached Jaya ji’s flat to narrate the story of ‘Zanjeer’. I was sure she would not reject the film knowing who is the hero in front? After listening to the story, Jaya’s reaction was also like that of all heroines. He also said that there is nothing for me in this film. After listening to Jaya, Salim Khan said, ‘I know that you have nothing to do in the film, but the hero of the film is Amitabh Bachchan. I hope you will definitely do this film for him.
Hearing this from Salim, Jaya Bhaduri immediately said yes to the film. Just… Salim and Javed composed such a dialogue of their life, which may not have been spoken in any film, but they gave their love to cinema to their Angry Youngman… Superstar and Jaya Bhaduri.
zanjeer and vijay connection
In ‘Zanjeer’, Amitabh Bachchan became a police inspector and was named Vijay Srivastava. The magic of Big B’s gait and dialogue delivery in the film went so far that Amitabh got ‘Vijay’ in Bollywood.
He came to be known as the Angry Young Man of Bollywood. Zanjeer not only took care of Amitabh’s sinking career, but also tied his fate in such a way that he reached from floor to floor. Amitabh himself liked the name Vijay so much that he used the same name in 22 films.
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