Zanjeer was a milestone film for Amitabh Bachchan. Directed by Prakash Mehra, the Salim-Javed penned film gave him the monicker of the ‘Angry Young Man.’ However, he wasn’t the first choice. The film was offered to Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra and even Dev Anand. However, they all rejected the movie. The rejection left Prakash Mehra fuming, Jaya Bachchan revealed in the series, Angry Young Men.
Released on Amazon Prime Video, the series shed light on the dynamic writing duo, Salim-Javed. In the first episode, Zanjeer was being discussed when Javed Akhtar, Jaya Bachchan and Salim Khan revealed that several big stars were approached for Zanjeer but they all turned it down. Prakash stood his ground on the script, suggesting that it was a great story and it could do wonders.
“Prakash Mehra’s anger was: ‘How dare anybody do this? I know this is a good story, I know that it would make a difference.’ He was angry that he got rejected by so many people. He had to prove a point,” Jaya said. Sachin Pilgaonkar revealed Dev Anand refused to do the film because it did not have songs. “You’d remember how Vijay doesn’t have even one song. This is the reason why Dev (Anand) sahab refused to act in it. He refused after hearing the script because he thought, ‘the audience will not accept Dev without songs!’” Sachin said.
With none of the stars ready to do the film, Prakash landed at Amitabh Bachchan’s doorstep. At the time, all his films were flopping and no actress was ready to work with him. senior film journalist Bhawna Somaiya said Amitabh he was at his lowest ebb. Javed revealed he and Salim saw Amitabh in an action scene in Bombay To Goa and decided to give him a shot. The rest is history.
While in most films at the time, the heros were singing songs with the actresses in picturesque locations, Zanjeer announced the onset of a new hero in town. “A new hero stormed into the (Hindi) film industry after Zanjeer. This is a new hero. A hero who doesn’t sing songs doesn’t romance, doesn’t break into comedy, bakwaas (nonsense) nahi karta hai. The other characters were doing all that. But not the hero,” Salim Khan said.
“You have to be honest to the character, without pushing the character according to the need of your plot. Then integrity grows into your character, and you can give it authenticity and a third dimension. Had we got Amitabh Bachchan to sing 2-3 songs in Zanjeer then today you wouldn’t remember the ‘Angry Young Man,’” Javed Akhtar added.
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