‘Amitabh Bachchan was replaced by Sanjay Khan in a film, as he had given 16 flops,’ recalls Raza Murad, revealing how the actor bagged ‘Zanjeer’ | Hindi Movie News
Amitabh Bachchan‘s first big hit was ‘Zanjeer’, post which he got married to Jaya Bhaduri. Just after the success of ‘Zanjeer’, Bachchan and Jaya tied the knot in June 1973. The legendary actor had faced failure before he could see his first big hit and in a recent interview, veteran actor Raza Murad has spoken up on it. He recalled some instances, thus, further adding how luck plays such an important role.He revealed that Bachchan was replaced by Sanjay Khan in a film as he had given 16 flops. He said during a chat with The Filmy Charcha, “Amitabh Bachchan was thrown out of Duniya Ka Mela. The makers replaced him with Sanjay Khan. 16 of his films flopped. Distributors said nobody will turn up to theatres if he will star in a film. At that time, his luck was not with him. But when the luck was in his favour, everything fell in place.”As destiny would’ve had it, many top actors rejected ‘Zanjeer’ and then Bachchan got the role. He added, “When Prakash Mehra wanted to make Zanjeer, he went to Dilip Kumar, Dharmendra, Dev Anand, Rajkumar, and they all refused for some or the other reason. The subject was extremely hero-oriented, yet, these superstars rejected it. Nobody knows why, but one can say that the luck wanted Amitabh Bachchan to lead the film. When nobody wanted him, and Prakash Mehra had no option, Jaya Bachchan (then Jaya Bahaduri) recommended the director he take Amitabh Bachchan and rest is history.”He added, “Luck is very important in this industry.”The film was a huge turning point in Bachchan’s career and also then started the partnership of Salim-Javed (Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar). Following this, they wrote a number of scripts which starred Bachchan and made him into this angry young man.
