MUMBAI: The 1973 Bollywood film Zanjeer was a cult classic, which made the lead actor Amitabh Bachchan the ‘Angry Young Man’ of Bollywood. His role being a very complex and unconventional one, reportedly many top actors refused to do it and one of them was Dharmendra.
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Talking about it, writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar said, “Amitabh Bachchan was actually the last choice for Zanjeer. The script was written for Dharmendra ji but for some reason he later refused to work on it. Prakash Mehra now had a script but not a leading man. He was also producing a film for the first time since he had only directed before that. He went from actor to actor to offer the role. Some of them are not in this world while some of them are. Everybody refused to do this film.”
He further added, “I can also understand why they refused. It was a time when Rajesh Khanna was considered as God, music were a must in films, and Zanjeer offered no romance angle or even comedy. The hero was not even singing here. From the first frame to the last frame, he was supposed to be a very grim, serious, bitter person. This was never seen that time on the screen so obviously it was so different so everybody refused.’
Reacting to this statement of Javed Akhtar, Dharmendra posted a cryptic message on his social media saying, “Javed, kaise ho …….dikhave ki iss duniya mein haqeeqaten dabi rah jaati hain . jeetey raho…..Dilon ko gudgudana khoob aata hai …..kaash sar chad ke bolne ka jaadu bhi sekh liya hota …..”
Dharmji also made it clear, “Refusing Zanjeer, was an emotional hurdle which I have mentioned in Aap ki Adalat. So please don’t misunderstand me. I always love Javed and Amit.”
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Credit- bollywoodhungama
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