Meet Dharmendra’s ‘best friend’, next superstar after Rajesh Khanna, who was guarantee for hits; career ruined after...

Rajesh Khanna, India’s first superstar, gave back-to-back hits, however, after the arrival of this actor, his career started to decline. The actor who became the next superstar after Rajesh Khanna started his career with back-to-back flops but just one film turned his fate. 

The actor we are talking about became a guarantee for hit films, even though he was once rejected by top actresses, later female actresses would go gaga to work with him. He is Bollywood’s shehanshah, Amitabh Bachchan. 

Amitabh Bachchan started his career in the film industry as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen's National Award-winning film Bhuvan Shome. His first acting role was as one of the seven protagonists in the film Saat Hindustani, followed by a role alongside Rajesh Khanna in Anand. However, Many of Bachchan's films during this early period did not do well and he was tagged as the ‘flop newcomer’, who had given 12 back-to-back flops. 

However, he was then discovered by screenwriter duo Salim–Javed, consisting of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. Salim-Javed then wrote a film, Zanjeer, and wanted a hero with an ‘angry young man’ persona, however, many heroes rejected the role. They then ‘strongly felt that Amitabh was the ideal casting for Zanjeer’ and cast him in the film despite his streak of flops and this became a life-changing movie for Amitabh Bachchan. 

The film became a huge hit, making Amitabh Bachchan a superstar. He then went on to star in blockbusters like Deewar, played Dharmendra’s best friend in Sholay, Trishul, and Kaala Patthar, and became one of the most successful leading men of the film industry. After Rajesh Khanna, he became India’s second superstar. After giving several hits like Agneepath, Khuda Gawah, Shahenshah, Sharaabi, Geraftaar, and more, he was called the ‘Guarantee’ of hits. He the decided to become a producer and started his own production company ABCL. the first film it produced was Tere Mere Sapne, which was a box office hit and launched the careers of actors like Arshad Warsi and southern film star Simran.

Then, Amitabh Bachchan tried to make his acting comeback with Mritydand and attempted to reprise Bachchan's earlier success as an action hero, the film was a failure both financially and critically. ABCL was the main sponsor of the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant, Bangalore, but lost millions. The fiasco and the consequent legal battles surrounding ABCL and various entities after the event, coupled with the fact that ABCL was reported to have overpaid most of its top-level managers, eventually led to its financial and operational collapse in 1997. Amitabh Bachchan went bankrupt and that is when he decided to focus on acting again and got his first success after failures with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. After this, there was no looking back for him. He went on to give several hits and blockbusters and his recent film, Kalki 2898 AD, made him a part of the Rs 1000-crore club.

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