The Untold Story: Dharmendra’s Sacrifice When He Walked Away from ‘Zanjeer

Dharmendra was suffering from a strange conflict. This scene seemed to him like a movie. On one side was her cousin sister and her filmmaker husband Ranjit Vark and on the other was Prakash Mehra. A decision had to be made and that too quickly, time was running out and they were not reaching a point.

Cousin Sister and Ranjit Work had come with a wish which they were in agony after hearing. Cousin sister was swearing at him. Dharmendra’s feet were being bound by the chains of family prestige and ego. He was being prevented from acting in a film whose script he liked and wanted to be the hero of.

Salim Javed’s duo wrote the script of ‘Zanjeer‘, which Dharmendra bought for just Rs 17,500.

When director Prakash Mehra was told this script by Dharmendra while working on his film ‘Samadhi’ in 1972, he was almost behind him to make a film on this script immediately. Dharmendra was busy with other films during this period, when he promised to work on this production as soon as he got free time.

The story of ‘Zanjeer’ was like Prakash Mehra’s heart, when he was not leaving Dharmendra’s life. Meanwhile, Dharmendra said that the director will be him, he will not make this film with anyone else, so don’t worry.

During this period, Prakash Mehra kept forcing Dharmendra to make the film as soon as possible and then there was a time when Dharmendra also surrendered. It has become known in the film industry that Dharmendra is now going to work in Prakash Mehra’s film, in which he will play the role of a principled inspector. It will be a creation that will be full of action, mayhem and romance.

As soon as the word reached Dharmendra’s cousin sister and filmmaker brother-in-law Ranjith Vark, she was sitting opposite Dharmendra one day.

Dharmendra succumbs to pressure from his relatives (Public Domain)

Dharmendra’s relatives were pleading that no matter what happens, Prakash Mehra should not act in this film. When Dharmendra inquired, a reason was explained, after hearing Dharmendra drowned in thought.

He was told that when filmmaker Ranjith Vark once wanted to select Prakash Mehra as the director, he refused. Despite a million attempts, Prakash Mehra apologized for directing a film by an unknown filmmaker.

Dharmendra’s brother-in-law Ranjith Vark made this a heartache. Now the couple was pressurizing Dharmendra to teach Prakash Mehra a lesson in revenge not to work in ‘Zanjeer’. Dharmendra was also tied up in an emotional bond.

The limit was reached that Dharmendra’s cousin sister also gave him her oath. The matter had also come to the knowledge of Dharmendra’s family, whose pressure was further troubling Dharmendra. That’s why he decided not to work in ‘Zanjeer’ after being sad.

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He didn’t want to take the opposition of his relatives and then Dharmendra put a stone on his heart and formally announced his separation from the ‘Zanjeer’.

When Prakash Mehra found out, he himself became depressed, but instead of sitting on his hands, he now raced to find a new actor. Even Dev Anand and Rajkumar were approached and then the unusual role went to Amitabh Bachchan.

Now how he got it is a different story, but this film which was released on 11th May 1973 turned Amitabh Bachchan’s career around 180 degrees and started him on the Angry Young Man journey. At every step of which only hit films connected with Amitabh Bachchan.

Dharmand Rakke Armaan was then further devastated when he saw the nine nominations for ‘Zanjeer’ at the Filmfare Awards the following year. Among them, Amitabh Bachchan was also nominated for Best Actor. Well, Dharmendra Kothuri was also very relieved that his name was also included in the list for ‘Yadaon Ki Barat’. ‘Zanjeer’ won a total of four Filmfare Awards. However, both Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan missed out on the award and Rishi Kapoor bagged the honor for ‘Bobby’.

Why Dharmendra suddenly resigned from work in ‘Zanjeer’, he kept quiet for a long time and then the secret was revealed to everyone. It is also a strange coincidence that Dharmendra did not get an opportunity to work with Prakash Mehra in another film later.

An interesting fact was that it was Dharmendra who recommended Amitabh Bachchan to director Ramesh Sappi after removing Shatrughan Sinha, who was slated for ‘Sholay’. Dharmendra was saddened and saddened that he should have worked in ‘Zanjeer’ instead of holding the heart of his relatives and resenting him.

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