Veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar recalled that when he approached Amitabh Bachchan for Zanjeer, the actor asked him if he was sure of casting him.

Javed Akhtar recalls Amitabh Bachchan's hesitance to play the Angry Young ManJaved Akhtar recalls Amitabh Bachchan’s hesitance to play the Angry Young Man

Veteran screenwriter duo Salim-Javed were the force behind constructing Amitabh Bachchan’s Angry Young Man persona in the 1970s. During a session at the recently conducted IFP, screenwriter-turned-lyricist Javed Akhtar recalled how Amitabh was initially sceptical to play the Angry Young Man. (Also Read: Amitabh Bachchan says ‘no change in routine’ as he returns to Kaun Banega Crorepati 16; fans pleasantly surprised)

What Javed said

“I went to his place. I told him, ‘Let me give you the script (of Zanjeer) and make you meet the producer. You don’t discuss any terms and conditions with him. Just do the film in whatever way possible’. He asked for a narration. I gave him a narration. I still remember very clearly that he looked at me in wonder. He said, ‘Do you think I can pull off this role?’ Because till then, he was playing only poet and doctor and writer and so on. So he said, ‘Can I do this?’ Then I told him, ‘Nobody can do it better than you’,” Javed recalled.

About the Angry Young Man persona

Salim-Javed initially conceptualised the Angry Young Man prototype in Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer (1973). However, when Prakash approached all the leading men of Hindi cinema back then, each and every one of them turned down the role. It was an anomaly in the times of Rajesh Khanna since the character of Vijay in Zanjeer was very intense, not romantic at all, and didn’t sing or dance like other heroes of that time.