‘Rajesh Khanna was surrounded by sycophants and yes men, became difficult to work with him’: Javed Akhtar reveals why he preferred Amitabh Bachchan

Javed Akhtar praised Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar as actors who could be relied upon to carry off demanding scenes.

New Delhi | Updated: September 10, 2024 12:45 PM IST

3 min read

Salim-Javed worked briefly with Rajesh Khanna.

Writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar recalled working with three generations of Indian superstars, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, and Amitabh Bachchan. While he had only kind things to say about the legendary Mughal-e-Azam star, and the man who played Vijay for them in multiple films, he admitted that collaborating with Rajesh Khanna became difficult very quickly, because he’d always be surrounded by sycophants. Salim-Javed wrote the scripts for Rajesh Khanna’s Haathi Mere Saathi and Andaz, and although the superstar is often credited with having contributed to their start in the film business, they didn’t work together again.

In an interview on the SAM YouTube channel, Javed Akhtar recalled, “Those were the times when a child born in India would say ‘Rajesh Khanna’ first and then ‘mumma, papa’. But it was a short period. There came a time when we realised that it would be difficult for us to work together. He was surrounded by so many people, so many sycophants and yes men, it was difficult to work with him. So, we parted ways. We became friendly, and we did a film also much later. But the kind of films that we were writing, and the kind of films that we had in our mind, were much more suitable for an actor like Amitabh Bachchan.”

Also read – Rajesh Khanna had the ‘arrogance of Napoleon’, his house was furnished as ‘a temple to himself’: When BBC journalist witnessed Kaka’s fall

Salim-Javed’s films contributed significantly to the rise of Amitabh Bachchan, who took over from Rajesh Khanna as the country’s biggest male superstar with a serious of blockbusters in which he played the ‘Angry Young Man’ archetype. “He was not a superstar at that time, to say the least, but he was an unbelievably good actor. He was the man who we felt would be able to play our Vijay,” Javed said.

Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar wrote over 20 blockbuster films.

Salim-Javed also went on to write the films Kranti and Shakti, which featured Dilip Kumar. Asked about working with him, Javed said, “If you’re working with actors like Amitabh Bachchan or Dilip Kumar, you know that you can put the weight on the actor, and the actor will carry it. Sometimes, when you feel that the actor has limited talent, you make the scene easier for him. But these actors could carry anything. Amitabh Bachchan, you give him any scene and he’ll do it with competence. You give him any line and he’ll make it natural…”

Salim-Javed abruptly broke up over 40 years ago, and haven’t worked together since. Their careers were recently honoured in the Prime Video documentary series Angry Young Men, co-produced by their children Salman Khan, Zoya Akhtar, and Farhan Akhtar.

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