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The 1973 film Zanjeer made Amitabh Bachchan a star. Recently, Javed Akhtar told about his first meeting with Amitabh Bachchan and the reason behind casting him for Zanjeer. Javed Akhtar said that when he and Salim Khan wrote the script of Zanjeer, most of the big stars at that time had refused to do the film. Whereas most of Amitabh Bachchan's films were flopping at the box office.
In a conversation with IFP, Javed Akhtar said, 'I remember well, we were shooting the last scene of the film Sita Aur Geeta. The film was about to end, perhaps some patchwork was going on or the shooting of Andaz was going on. At the same time, shooting of the film Anand was going on on the upper floor of Mohan Studio. When we went to the set somewhere far away, we knew only Rajesh Khanna. But there was also a tall and thin young boy sitting there. Someone told that he is Amitabh, son of Harivansh Rai Bachchan. During that time I met Amitabh Bachchan for the first time.
Javed Akhtar said, 'I saw some films of Amitabh Bachchan, which did not do well. Also saw some of her scenes in Parvana, Bombay to Goa, and Guddi. After watching these films, Salim Khan and I understood that this person is very talented. We both said, wow, what a good actor! However, the sad thing was that his films were not very successful at that time.
Javed Akhtar said, 'The script of Zanjeer film was ready. Prakash Mehra was going to make it. But the lead hero was not available for the film. No one was ready to do this film, because it was Rajesh Khanna's era at that time. Also there was romance and music in the films. But our script neither had songs for the hero, nor romance, nor fun scenes, due to which no one was ready to do this film.
He said, 'We used to repeatedly ask Prakash Mehra to cast Amitabh Bachchan, but every time he agreed to cast him, one of Amitabh's films would flop and he would get disappointed. But in the end when no option was found, we had to cast Amitabh Bachchan.
Javed Akhtar told, 'One day I found Amitabh Bachchan's phone number and called him. I told him you might not remember me, but I have a script. I want to tell it to you. He didn't have much work, so he said, you can come now. I went to him and said that I will narrate the script to you and also introduce you to the producer, but please do not put any conditions on him, just do the film. He agreed to this.
Javed said, 'When I narrated the script, he asked me, do you think I will be able to do this? Then I said no one can do it better than you, no one. Javed Akhtar said, whether Amitabh had done Zanjeer or not, he would have definitely been successful because he had immense talent.
