Javed Akhtar says Rajesh Khanna became difficult to work with, Amitabh Bachchan 'was unbelievably...'

Salim-Javed’s films such as Sholay, helped Amitabh Bachchan in his career as these films made him one of India's biggest movie stars with his ‘Angry Young Man’ roles. In a recent interview, lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar mentioned that Rajesh Khanna was diffuclt to work with while Amitabh Bachchan was an ‘unbelievably good actor'. 

In an interview on the SAM YouTube channel, Javed Akhtar mentioned that Rajesh Khanna was the top Bollywood star for a short time He stated, "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. Someone, there came a time when we realised that it would be difficult for us to work together because he was surrounded by so many people, so many sycophants and yes men, it was difficult to work with him. So, we parted ways. Then 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 although he was at that time not a superstar, 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."

He added, "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."

Amitabh Bachchan appeared in several Salim-Javed films, including Sholay, Don, and Deewaar. In a recent interview with NDTV, Salim recalled when Javed expressed his desire to split from their writing partnership. Salim mentioned that if anyone could have prevented that split, it would have been Amitabh Bachchan.

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