Rajesh Khanna couldn’t accept the fact that his stardom was fading, Amitabh Bachchan started doing character roles at the right time: Prem Chopra

He said in Hindi, “He tried to retain his old style, but the audience didn’t accept it. Those movies didn’t work. He could not face the fact that he wasn’t the superstar that he used to be. But Amitabh was different. He was a superstar for so many years, but he moved on to character roles at the right time. I am sometimes surprised, at this age, he is busier than he was before.”

Recalling an anecdote from the sets of Haathi Mere Saathi, Prem Chopra said that the producer, who was a bit of a ruffian, had hired a man just for the purpose of beating him up whenever Rajesh Khanna showed up late to set. Because the producer couldn’t confront the star about his tardiness, he would make a show of beating up the man he’d hired just to send Rajesh a message. “In Chennai, they are very punctual. If your call time is 9, you have to be on set by 8:30. Rajesh Khanna would show up at noon. Nobody could say anything to him. But when he would arrive, the producer would beat up this man he’d hired and yell at him in front of everybody. Rajesh Khanna got the hint, and started arriving on time a few days later,” he said.

He’d developed a habit of being late, and a lot of people became fed up of this even in Bollywood. “But Rajesh Khanna was Rajesh Khanna. The producers heavily depended on him. When he’d arrive on set some hours late, they would ask him if he wanted to have lunch first, but he’d always finish work first,” he said.