For Dharmendra, 1973 was arguably the greatest year that any actor has ever seen. The other years which are comparable to Dharmendra is Dharmendra himself in 1973 and Amitabh Bachchan in 1978 and 1981. Rajesh Khanna in 1970 and Jeetendra in 1980 deserve a mention but they are probably not at the level of the ones mentioned above.

In 1973, Dharmendra had eight releases out of which only one film did not do well and that was BLACKMAIL but even this film was coverage in the bigger circuits. Also what has to be noted is all the films were practically as SOLO hero flicks with YAADON KI BAARAAT having some newcomers for company.

There are seven HITS out of eight films and four of these films are a big HITS. KEEMAT is good example of many Dharmendra films which were not quite upto the mark in terms of content. This film had a share of 58.40 lakhs in the first six months across India.

At that time, it was called the billing. So, the all India billing was 58.40 lakhs in six months which very average. But by January 1979, this billing was 81 lakhs as the film kept on bringing healthy shares in West Bengal, Bihar, Assa, Odisha, CP Berar, CI and Rajasthan. The business of KEEMAT was less than JHEEL KE US PAAR and JWAR BHATA in the first six months of release but eventually finished above them.

A film which may not have been of great quality and was thumbed down by the trade eventually did HIT business and it was not only KEEMAT but many other films which did the same especially the ones released in the 1965-1975 period. We always talk about reach today as that would give you a bigger audience and the REACH of Dharmendra was insane which showed up in collections as films went into mofussil towns. This was not just action films but even likes of MERE HAMDAM MERE DOST, IZZAT and RESHAM KI DORI.

Dharmendra releases in 1973 were as follows.

Jugnu - Blockbuster

Yaadon Ki Baaraat - Blockbuster

Loafer - Super Hit

Kahani Kismat Ki - Super Hit

Keemat - Hit

Jheel Ke Us Paar - Hit

Jwar Bhata - Hit

Blackmail - Below Average