Rajesh Khanna was undoubtedly the superstar of Indian cinema from the 1960s to the late 1970s. The seven-time All India Critics Association Awardee had achieved tremendous success and was considered the ‘first superstar’ of the country. However, Amitabh Bachchan’s rise challenged his popularity and fame. Prem Chopra, a veteran actor and close friend of Khanna, revealed that the late actor had problems adjusting to roles because of his fame.
“He was a little misunderstood man. He was a very nice emotional fellow. He had his own problems, I don’t know what those were but then when he lost his superstardom he could not make an adjustment,” Chopra had told News18. He revealed that Khanna was hesitant to sign non-leading roles.”He was a great actor, he could have managed it but after his superstardom went down, he got very frustrated. Adjustment is very important in film industry,” he shared. However, Chopra recalled that Amitabh’s acceptance of even non-leading roles made him a much more popular choice.
The Do Raaste actor elaborated that his friend struggled to accept his downfall from fame, because of which he could not fit into the roles offered to him. Khanna was adamant about sticking to his style and could not mould himself to the demands of the changing cinema scenario. He recalled that his Ajanabee costar had problems that he wasn’t aware of, which ultimately made it difficult for him to accept his fate.
Despite such events, Prema Chopra said that he had a “great experience” while working with Rajesh Khanna and said that there used to be a line of producers waiting to sign the megastar of the industry. Chopra also shared that due to Khanna’s last-minute withdrawal from Manoj Kumar’s Upkar, he was able to establish himself as the tailor-made villain in films, “The first choice was Rajesh Khanna. His dresses were made, he was going to shoot the next day. The set was ready,” he said.
Both the legendary actors have worked together with each other in 19 films.
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