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Veteran actor Dharmendra made his debut in Hindi cinema in the year 1960, and by his second decade in the movies, he had struck the right balance by appearing in some massy action films, as well as playing some nuanced roles in Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films. In the early 1970s, Dharmendra was one of the most promising actors of Hindi cinema and writer Salim Khan first approached him with the idea of Zanjeer, the film that later changed the trajectory of Amitabh Bachchan’s career. Dharmendra was quite impressed with the film and had actually paid Rs 2,500 to buy the concept.
In the book ‘Written by Salim-Javed’ by Diptakirti Chaudhuri, Salim shared that he came up with the “treatment” of Zanjeer even before he started his writing partnership with Javed Akhtar. Salim’s father, Abdul Rashid Khan, worked as a police officer and had spent a few years in the ravines of Chambal, which later served as an inspiration for Sholay as well. Salim’s idea for Zanjeer was sold to Dharmendra for Rs 2,500. At this point, it was decided that Dharmendra would star in the film, and his brother Ajit would co-produce the film with director Prakash Mehra.
However, as per Salim, things didn’t go as per plan and the producing partnership fell out, and so Dharmendra bowed out of the film after his brother’s exit. After Dharmendra’s exit, the film was offered to Dilip Kumar, who also passed on it. The film eventually landed in the hands of Amitabh Bachchan.
In an earlier interview with Instant Bollywood, Bobby Deol spoke about Dharmendra’s exit from the film and shared that one of his cousins and Prakash Mehra had an argument, after which Dharmendra was asked to quit the film. “When Zanjeer was offered, Dad wanted to do it. However, humari ek cousin sister thi, aur unki shayad koi problem ho gayi thi Prakash Mehra Ji se (We had a cousin who apparently had some issues with Prakash Mehra). She came to the house one day and said, ‘Aapko meri kasam, agar aapne yeh film ki toh aap meri dead body dekhoge’ (‘Swear on me, if you do this film, you’ll see my dead body’). So my father had to give up on Zanjeer.”
In 2022, writer Javed Akhtar, in a chat with India Today, said that Amitabh Bachchan was the last choice for Zanjeer, and said that Dharmendra, among others had rejected the film. To this, Dharmendra had then responded, “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 (How are you doing Javed? Reality often remains unheard in this world full of show offs. I know how to make people laugh… wish I could learn the art of speaking my mind).”
Alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Zanjeer also starred Pran and Jaya Bachchan in signficant roles.
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