A small incidence Amitabh Bachhan & Pran in Zanjeer

 

From Yogesh Gogwekar

Address: Mahim, Mumbai

"Taken from the book. “Bollywood a History written by Mihir Bose”

 Subject : A  small incidence Amitabh Bachhan & Pran in Zanjeer

 

Zanjeer, a Hindi feature film released on 23rd May 1973 which unexpectedly took off.  Amitabh Bachhan who played a lead role in Zanjeer had thirteenth flops films in a row before Zanjeer& for Zanjeer he was the fifth choice. Therefore, mood in the Zanjeer Camp was so gloomy that director Prakash Mehra had to announce that Amitabh would be starring in his next production Hera Pheri. This boosted the morale of Amitabh and he put full efforts to make this film.. Zanjeer made him the most successful actor in Bollywood .

 

There is a short incident that happened at the time of the shooting of Zanjeer. Pran , an established star, played the Pathan, a villain role who befriends policemen to seek justice. Amitabh Bachhan has a great respect for Pran & used to call him Pran Uncle. There was a scene in the police station where Amitabh had to kick the chair away from Pran, in a show of anger. But Amitabh was not putting proper efforts in the role due to respect for Pran. At last Pran only helped to come out of this situation. 

 

Pran told him (As per Amitabh) " Do not think of me as your uncle.  Think of me as a villain. Forget the uncle & Kick the chair". 

 

Only after that , Amitabh could do the scene well & I always like to watch this scene again & again.

 

Thank you