“Every shot for him is his first shot”

Iwas one of the very few in the industry who could see and appreciate the immense talent in this young actor, even as his films were not doing well. There was Raaste ka Patthar (1972), a flop—I think besides its producer, I must have been the only one to have seen it thrice. But I could see that Amitabh Bachchan had done a great job. His performances were commendable even in films like Parwana (1971) and Mehmood’s Garam Masala (1972), in which he had a guest appearance playing a comical character called Robert Taylor. I felt that the only thing going against him was a bad script and bad direction.

It took some time to convince Prakash Mehra to cast Bachchan in Zanjeer (1973) because he was looking for a ‘viable’ actor. During the film’s production, I remember Mr Mehra saying: ‘Javed, thank you for recommending him because I can’t imagine making a film without this actor.’ I have great respect for Mr Mehra’s conviction in the script, because by then every ‘viable’ actor had refused to play the role, but he didn’t

abandon it. Kismet ki baat hai, varna Amitabh ko yeh mauka nahin milta. Zanjeer went on to become a golden jubilee hit and heralded the rise of Amitabh Bachchan.

Salim Khan and I wrote 22 films, and 11 of them featured Bachchan. He’d never ever change a single word. We didn’t have to explain the nuances of the language; he’d know. Writers tend to be a finicky lot, but in all the films we did, not even for one line did I feel that he had not enunciated and expressed the dialogue the way I had imagined. Is mein koi shaq nahin hai ki jo performance Zanjeer aur Deewaar mein Amitabh Bachchan ne di hai, woh koi doosra nahin de sakta tha. Let me not be too modest though. Nobody but Salim-Javed could have given him the kind of scripts he did in the ’70s-’80s, and nobody could have given SalimJaved the kind of performances he did.

To become Amitabh Bachchan, you need many qualities—monumental talent, complete discipline and focus, and perfect social relationships. Even at the age of 80, here is a man who still gives every shot as if it is the first shot of his life, and his career depends on it. He doesn’t interfere in your work and gives you the space you need. It’s why younger actors, who consider him God, realise on working with him that this God is benevolent. ■