Rajesh Khanna’s cold war with his contemporary, Amitabh Bachchan was one of the most known gossips back in the ‘70s. While they never openly proclaimed hatred for one another, it was unanimously understood how Amitabh’s success led to the downfall of Rajesh Khanna. Nevertheless, the two actors did work together in some films, such as Anand, Namak Haram, Bawarchi and others.
Back in 1981, Amitabh Bachchan made a pathbreaking performance, when he dressed up as a female and performed in the song, Mere Angne Mein in the film, Laawaris. While his performance fetched a lot of appreciation from many, it was Amitabh Bachchan’s close contemporary, Rajesh Khanna, who ended up taking a nasty dig on it. As quoted by Yasser Usman in the actor’s biography titled Rajesh Khanna: The Untold Story of India’s First Superstar, Rajesh Khanna in one of his interviews to a film magazine in 1982, gave a shocking statement on Amitabh’s performance. He had said:
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“I will never compromise on my dignity and don a saree and do a ‘Mere Angne Mein’ for all the money and all the applause in the world.”
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Well, it was not quite easy for an actor like Rajesh Khanna to witness his downfall, especially after starting to get replaced by a younger and contemporary actor. Despite rumours of cold war, Rajesh, strived to take his adieu from the celluloid in quite a dignified manner. In one of his older interviews with the Movie magazine, Rajesh Khanna had talked about the moment he realised that his career was over and Amitabh Bachchan would replace him, after he saw the latter’s film, Namak Haram. Recalling the conversation he had with filmmaker, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Rajesh Khanna mentioned:
“When I saw Namak Haram at a trial at Liberty cinema. I knew my time was up. I told Hrishida, ‘Here is the superstar of tomorrow’.”
In another older interview with Bollywood Presents, Rajesh Khanna had revealed how the screenwriter duo, Salim-Javed replaced him overnight with Amitabh Bachchan, for the film, Deewar. For the unversed, this was the film which became a turning point in the latter’s career, as he received the iconic tag of being the ‘angry young man’ of the ‘70s. Talking about it, Rajesh mentioned how he envied Amitabh Bachchan hence forth. In his words:
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“After Deewar, I always envied him. The only thing is, I smiled each time he slipped because he made the same mistakes that I once made.”
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Previously, during a conversation with a contestant on his show, Kaun Banega Crorepati 15, Amitabh Bachchan recalled how he recorded the song, Mere Angne Mein in his own hoarse voice. Calling himself a phata huin baans, Amitabh remembered:
“This film (Laawaris) was made by director Prakash Mehra. He also made Zanjeer. He came up to me one day and said, hey, Amit, give me this song. I asked him what he meant by that. He then explained that he wanted to use the song in his film, and I said sure, why not! He then said, you will have to sing it. I told him, I can’t. Phate huye baans jaise, I am a very bad singer. I cannot sing. But he was persistent that I sing it the way I do at home. That’s how it was included and I sang it with great difficulty.”
What do you think about Rajesh Khanna’s remark over Amitabh Bachchan’s performance?
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