‘Destroyed Rajesh Khanna’s career by creating Amitabh Bachchan; we will do the same to you’: When Rishi Kapoor recalled Salim Khan’s threat

In his autobiography, Rishi Kapoor looked back at the animosity between him and the writer duo Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, which erupted because he refused to work with them.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: September 30, 2024 07:54 PM IST

3 min read

Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Haraam. (Photo: Express Archives)

Late actor Rishi Kapoor made his acting debut at around the same time as when the writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar were establishing themselves in the film industry. This put them at odds with each other on more than one occasion. Things escalated initially when Rishi turned down an offer to star in a film written by them, which angered Salim Khan to no end. He drew the ire and envy of Javed Akhtar, on the other hand, when his debut film as a lead, Bobby, emerged as a blockbuster.

In his autobiography, Khullam Khulla, Rishi Kapoor recalled the threat that an irate Salim Khan made to him once, when he refused to do the film Trishul. He wrote that Salim-Javed ‘bristled’ at his rejection, and the animosity ‘bubbled to the surface’ when he ran into Salim at a Mumbai hotel. He wrote, “I was playing a game of snooker when Salim sa’ab walked over and asked me, ‘How did you have the guts to refuse Salim–Javed?’ Not one to be intimidated, I shot back, ‘I didn’t like the role.’”

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Rishi recalled that Salim Khan proceeded to boast about launching Amitabh Bachchan, and made it seem as if it was done to get back at Rajesh Khanna for rejecting them once. Rajesh Khanna’s career took a hit with the arrival of Amitabh, who offered mainstream audience a more rugged hero to root for. Rishi continued, “Salim sa’ab boasted to me, ‘Do you know that to this day nobody has said no to us? We can destroy your career.’”

Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan (Express archive photo)

When Rishi asked Salim Khan what he had in mind, the writer wrote, “He said, ‘Who will work with you? You know, we had offered Zanjeer to Rajesh Khanna and he turned us down. We didn’t do anything to him but we created an alternative to him, a hero called Amitabh Bachchan, who destroyed Rajesh Khanna. We will do the same to you.’”

Rishi wrote that the altercation didn’t escalate further. Salim-Javed’s career was recently honoured in the Prime Video documentary series Angry Young Men. The two writers delivered a record-breaking string of hits in the 1970s, but abruptly split in the 1980s. In a recent appearance at Expresso, Javed Akhtar dismissed the suggestion that he and Salim should receive credit for launching the career of Amitabh Bachchan. “We were sharp enough to realise that Amitabh Bachchan was a great actor, and it was his films that failed him. We backed his talent, and he repaid us with his great performance,” he said.

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