Amitabh Bachchan once accused, 'Shaktimaan' actor, Mukesh Khanna of copying him. The latter blasted the superstar for trying to end his career and challenged him.
The 1970s and 1980s were a time of intense Bollywood rivalries, with actors and actresses openly feuding with their peers. One of the most notable was between the legendary Amitabh Bachchan and the outspoken Mukesh Khanna. The Deewaar star once accused Mukesh of imitating his style and mannerisms, a claim that Mukesh vehemently denied, sparking a series of heated exchanges between the two.
Mukesh Khanna has always been very upfront about his opinions and is not scared to call a spade a spade. While some may like his opinionated approach to life, others may find it very flamboyant. In an old interview with Bollywood Thikana, the Shaktiman actor revealed that people have called him Amitabh Bachchan's copy ever since his debut film, and it irked him. Mukesh further added:
“Media once called Mithun Chakraborty, ‘Gareebo ka Amitabh Bachchan.’ I don’t know how he reacted, but if I was told that, I would’ve said, ‘Shut up.’ They would say, ‘You look like Amit ji, you copy him.’ A string of my films flopped, which is why people said that. Here, only success speaks the loudest. When Mahabharat happened, no one gave me the label of Amitabh Bachchan, which happened a lot during my film career.”
Mukesh emphasises that many would tell him that his career is over as his is not labelled as Amitabh Bachchab's copy. They would even tell him that his career would never take off because of being a lookalike of Big B. In Mukesh's words:
“People would say, ‘You weren’t successful because you look like him, and now that Amitabh Bachchan himself said that you copy him, your career is over.'”
In the same interview, Mukesh shared that even Amitabh Bachchan accused him of copying him and said that his career would never take off. But he openly challenged him that who is Amitabh Bachchan to end his career. One of his friends once shared that while he was travelling with Amitabh, an ad for Mukesh came on screen, and he saw that the megastar got irritated and called him a 'copy'. In Mukesh's words:
“He did say that, but will I be a flop because of that? Amit ji kaun hai jo mere career ko rok sakte hai? A friend of mine had told me how he was watching a film with Amit ji. It was a drive-in theatre, and he was on the bonnet. When my ad came, he saw it and said, ‘Saala copy karta hai.’ Years later, some YouTubers took the quote and wrote, ‘Amit ji’s one line destroyed my career."
Mukesh Khanna said that every actor is inspired by someone but that doesn't mean that they are copying them. If one mimics other that that may affect their career but he did not do that. Mukesh further added:
“Every actor is inspired by some other– Manoj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar were inspired by Dilip Kumar, Shah Rukh is heavily inspired by Dilip Saab too. Even the initial roles of Amitabh Bachchan were inspired and why not, because you take in from what you see. There is nothing in that But if you do mimicry in your films, then you will be destroyed. Which is what I didn’t do."
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