At Rajesh Khanna’s funeral, Amitabh Bachchan remembered when he waited for 2 hours for the superstar: ‘Now look at him’

Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna were widely perceived as rivals during the 1970s. While Rajesh Khanna became a superstar in the late 1960s, Amitabh Bachchan emerged as a formidable challenger after the release of Zanjeer in 1973. Despite the professional rivalry, the two actors shared mutual respect, and Amitabh was present at Rajesh Khanna’s funeral. In a recent interaction, theatre owner and producer Manoj Desai recalled Amitabh Bachchan’s poignant words at Khanna’s funeral.

Manoj recalled sitting next to Amitabh at Rajesh Khanna’s funeral. He shared that Khanna’s family was waiting before taking the actor’s remains to the cremation ground for the final rites. “At Rajesh Khanna’s bungalow, his body had to be taken to the cremation ground, but his family was waiting for someone. At that time, Amitabh ji turned to me and said, ‘I had waited for 2 hours for this man on set, now look at the same man.’ I told him everyone will meet the same fate,” Manoj shared while speaking to Vickey Lalwani.

In another recent interaction, actor Rajat Bedi spoke about how the rivalry between Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan ended up causing his late father, director-producer Narendra Bedi, significant financial losses.

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Talking about how Rajesh Khanna’s competition with Amitabh Bachchan affected his father’s finances, Rajat told Siddharth Kannan, “My dad was also facing issues with Rajesh Khanna. He had started 2-3 films with Rajesh Khanna and Rajesh Khanna felt bad that my father was engaging with Amitabh Bachchan and doing projects with him. I don’t know the real story, but my father had taken the unit to Pune for one or two films, and he was waiting for Rajesh Khanna to come. For 10 to 15 days, Rajesh Khanna didn’t come, and my father just shut the projects down. I guess heroes at that time were problematic or something.”

Rajesh Khanna’s later years saw a sharp decline in fame and increasing loneliness. He passed away on July 18, 2012, at the age of 69.