Last year, veteran writer duo Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan (Salim-Javed) revealed that Zanjeer (1973) was originally offered to Dharmendra before Amitabh Bachchan stepped into the iconic role of Vijay Khanna. Now, actor Bobby Deol has shed light on why his father chose to walk away from the film that ultimately launched Bachchan’s stardom.

In a recent interview with Instant Bollywood, Bobby shared, “My father did Satyakam (1969) for my aunt’s husband. They were going through a financial crisis, and my dad gave them Rs. 25 lakh.”

He went on to explain how a family situation influenced Dharmendra’s decision to turn down Zanjeer: “When Zanjeer was offered, dad wanted to do it. However, humari ek cousin sister thi, unki shayad koi problem hogyi thi (director) Prakash Mehra ji se. She came to the house one day and said, ‘Aapko meri kasam, agar apne yeh film ki, toh aap meri dead body dekhoge’.”

Back in 2022, Javed briefly addressed Dharmendra’s refusal, saying, “The script was written for Dharmendra ji, but for some reason, he refused to work on it.”

Later, Dharmendra took to X with a poetic response: “Javed… dikhave ki iss duniya mein haqeeqaten dabi rah jaati hain… Dilon ko gudgudana khoob aata hai… kaash sar chad ke bolne ka jaadu bhi seekh liya hota.”

It has been 25 years; Amitabh Bachchan has been sitting across the hot seat, quizzing contestants while subtly giving them hints and keeping Kaun Banega Crorepati entertaining with anecdotes. Next week, the reality quiz show kicks off the celebration, Gyan Ka Rajat Mahotsav, on January 20. Contestant Vinay Gupta from Kathu takes the hot seat as a representative of his village, becoming the first-ever contestant from his hometown to feature on KBC. The cherry on the cake comes when he gets Bachchan to spout one of his iconic dialogues from Zanjeer (1973).

Bachchan gets into action mode and recites the dialogue, “Jab tak baithne ko na kaha jaye, seedhi tarah khade raho. Ye police station hai, tumhare baap ka ghar nahi.” After the thunder of applause, he smiles and explains how he had to say this dialogue on the first day of shooting. “I was initially hesitant to say these lines to Pran sir, a man of extraordinary talent, but he was extremely supportive.”

Written by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, Zanjeer was the turning point of Bachchan’s career after his debut with Saat Hindustani (1969). The senior actor confesses that, at that time, the late actor Rajesh Khanna was the biggest superstar in India.

“Kya aura tha, kya following thi… His presence was so powerful that women would take the dirt from his car’s tyres and apply it to their foreheads as a blessing. I was a nobody, but Salim-Javed came to meet me and offered me the story. Javed saab said he had seen me in a scene from Bombay To Goa [1972], where Shatrughan Sinha and I were sitting in a restaurant and he slapped me. When I stood up, I was still chewing the sandwich I had been eating. That moment made Javed saab believe that I could handle the role in Zanjeer.”

Lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar stirred up a hornet’s nest when, in a recent interview to mark actor Amitabh Bachchan’s 80th birthday, he said that instead of Big B, actor Dharmendra was the first choice for the film, Zanjeer (1973).

Akhtar claimed that the Apne (2007) actor turned down the role, among other actors. “Amitabh Bachchan was actually the last choice for Zanjeer. The script was written for Dharmendra ji, but for some reason, he refused to work on it. Prakash Mehra (the film’s director) had a script, but no leading man. He went from actor to actor to offer the role. Everybody refused to do the film,” Akhtar, 77, told India Today.

He added that many actors turned down the film as it had “no romance angle or comedy” and the lead character “was supposed to be a very grim, serious, bitter person”.

When HT City tweeted about the lyricist’s comments, the 86-year-old replied, “Javed, kaise ho... dikhave ki iss duniya mein haqeeqaten dabi rah jaati hain. jeetey raho... Dilon ko gudgudana khoob aata hai….. kaash sar chad ke bolne ka jaadu bhi sekh liya hota….. (sic).”

Soon after social media users started deciphering the tweet, Dharmendra clarified that his post wasn’t meant to signal any jibe: He wrote, “Refusing Zanjeer, was an emotional hurdle which i have mentioned in aap ki Adaalat. So please don’t misunderstand me. i always love Javed and Amit (sic).”

Salim Khan with Bachchan and Dilip Kumar

A: Cinema mirrors society. The youth of 1970s were disillusioned with corruption, nepotism. Amitabh became the hero who took on the forces that polluted the system. Disenchanted with pervasive hopelessness, the masses identified with Amitabh’s characters--the common man who wanted to right the wrongs and didn’t mind if he broke a few rules in the process.

A: Before Zanjeer (1973), Amitabh had several flops and just two hits — Bombay To Goa and Anand. It was an era when films were made around stories of love and betrayal punctuated with melodrama and songs. Rajesh Khanna ruled. When we wrote Zanjeer, initially no one would touch it because it was so devoid of romance that the hero doesn’t hold the heroine’s hand even once. Dharmendra, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar — they all refused, they found the plot dry and not much for themselves in it. Once Dilip saab told me that he regretted refusing three films—Pyaasa, Baiju Bawra and Zanjeer.

A: Amitabh was immensely talented and needed a breakthrough script. When we created the character of police inspector Vijay Khanna, it suited the lanky figure with a booming baritone. I remember telling producer-director Prakash Mehra during the first day first show that the film would create history.

We were watching the scene where Sher Khan (Pran) visits the inspector and tries to sit. Vijay fumes: “Jab tak baithne ko na kaha jaaye, sharafat se khade raho, yeh police station hai, tumhere baap ka ghar nahin.” 

Watching that scene, I told Prakash Mehra the film would be a hit. The intensity with which Amitabh delivered this line told us he had a lot of fire that needed to be tapped. We did it in subsequent films (Deewar, Trishul, Sholay...).

A: Amitabh was an untapped dynamo before we paired. He was educated and hugely talented but had not got the scripts to use his potential. Our scripts gave him ample opportunities.

A: Today writers don’t read. When I came from Indore (Akhtar came from Bhopal) to Bombay to become an actor, I soon realized that acting would not take me to the peak. I turned to scriptwriting. A public library in Mahim became my second home. I read books and watched films voraciously.

When he's not making movies, he's either a sous chef in a restaurant or jumping off airplanes and relishing his sky-diving lessons. So far, he has recorded 123 solo jumps which he is happy to flaunt. He likes the slow pace of work - an average of one film in three years. Apoorva Lakhia, who admittedly has a long-running affair with crime-action films, particularly those dealing with gangsters, is back after a four-year gap with another one in a space he's familiar with: Mumbai's underbelly. The only difference this time is that Haseena Parkar is not about a Bhai, it's about Aapa. We take you through the filmmaker's journey with 'Haseena' in his own words. Excerpts...

THE HASEENA I KNOW...
Haseena Parkar was one of the 12 children born to Ibrahim Kaskar, a constable in the police force. Her formative years were spent in a tiny quarter with 11 siblings. She was extremely close to Sabir and Dawood, and the only member of the Kaskar family who stayed back in Mumbai after her marriage and the bombings. There was no evidence of her involvement in the case. It's a tragic character - she lost her husband young, she lost her son and watched her brother Sabir perish in a gang war. She became a godmother to many and remained a gangster for some. With 88 cases against her, she has been to court just once. She was supposed to go to the court for anticipatory bail. To avoid being arrested, she came with four other women in burkhas and no one could figure which one of them was her. She played it really smart. When her husband was shot 17 times, she carried him on her shoulders and put him in a taxi, which proves that she was a strong-willed woman.

THE WAITING GAME...
Although I was offered to do Dawood's biopic, in the course of my research, I felt Haseena Parkar's story was far more interesting and hadn't been tapped. When I was shooting Zanjeer at Film City, I was expected to meet Haseena and her family at someone's place in Malad at 7 pm. I reached the venue at 9 pm. Kadir, who was always with her, told me, 'Aapko maalum hai aapne kisko intezar karwaya hai?' I went into the house. Haseena was in the next room but she also made us wait for two hours. Meantime, I dozed off on the couch in my shorts because I was drained after the shoot. In the meeting, she didn't talk much, people around her did. My writer Chintan Gandhi, she and I were the only people seated in the room while everyone else remained standing. She was hesitant when I told her that I wanted to make a movie about her life. But eventually, she agreed and also opened up with us in our subsequent meetings.

NOT HASEENA'S SHOWREEL
We had a clear understanding that we were not venturing out to make a resume or a show reel for her. Like every other film of mine, I knew even this one will be scrutinized. I had told her that after talking to her, I will be talking to several others and on the basis of what I lay my hands on, I will draft the narrative. We will put in everything that can be corroborated which her family and she agreed to. I met several cops, including Meera Borwankar, who was in charge of her interrogation. I realised the police department loves India and left to their devices, they would eradicate everything anti-national. They are not happy to hear Dawood's name and feel that he is India's no 1 enemy. It's such a dichotomy: she was Nagpada's godmother and a gangster in the eyes of the law. The judge, during her hearing had noted that it's difficult for anyone to say if she's a victim of circumstances or the smartest woman on earth. And whether her problems are because of her brother or was he shielding her. Nothing could be proven; she got an anticipatory bail.

ANGRY TO BE CALLED DAWOOD'S FRIEND
In the last four years, I was offered several gangster and action films. Maybe I attract them or I get attracted to this kind of films pretty easily. But it's amusing how people speak about it. I was shooting with Shraddha Kapoor and Ankur Bhatia in Pune where a cinema hall owner told his kid, 'Yeh Dawood ka best friend hai. Yeh ussi pe picture banata hai.' That line angered me, but I didn't lose my cool on it because I didn't want to lose focus of my shoot.

TOUGH START FOR HASEENA
The industry weighs you on your last Friday's outcome. Suddenly, after two flops, people look at you as the dark horse which they can't place their bets on. They conveniently forget that you have worked before this. Even relatively newer people question your ability to pull it off. This is a director's medium. A director may not be as big as the star but he will take the fall for the film. Although I was advised to change my path and explore other genres, I stuck to what I knew best. In these four years, my film was nearly written off a few times. I am not saying this is a great subject and I am making path-breaking cinema. This film was up my alley. The only thing I was unsure about was how I would work with an actress who had to play my hero.

NO REAL LOCATIONS
It's impossible to shoot at real locations in Mumbai. I couldn't even get an exterior shot of Nagpada because there are hoardings and tall buildings in the neighbourhood which didn't exist during those days. We shot exteriors in Pune because it has the old world charm of Nagpada.

NO FINANCE DESPITE BEING A WOMAN-CENTRIC FILM
No one backed my film financially for a very long time. It was very difficult to get a studio on board, because I was not making a Mary Kom. It wasn't a patriotic film where everyone could stand up and clap at the end of the film with our flag flying high. I was making a film about a woman in a grey area. I am criticized for making such films, but look at the subject matter I had. Here's a woman with 88 cases with not one proven by a massive judiciary. I just saw the material for what it is and presented both sides of the coin.

THE PARKARS HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM
At the onset, I categorically told Haseena Parkar that I won't give her a narration. I had told her that she's known as a gangster and I won't mess with facts. Like her father was arrested for corruption charges which she didn't agree with, but there is an FIR to prove that. I told her I would include such facts in the film which can be substantiated. After the first draft, we went over to ask for the NOC, but she and her folks wanted a narration. I refused and left. Four days later, I met her alone. She again asked for the script. I showed her what I had in my hand and she signed the deal, maybe because she was morally bound by her word. To this day, I haven't shown the film to her family and neither were they allowed on my set every day.

Apoorva Lakhia had been approached to make a film on Dawood Ibrahim and met the don's family as a part of the prep. During his conversations with his sister, Haseena Parkar, he learnt how they had lived in a 12-ft x12-ft chawl, their childhood and her relationship with her brothers. “I found her story more interesting and asked if I can make a film on her. She agreed after a week to 10 days. This was three-and-a-half years ago,“ reminisces Apoorva admitting that he'd struggled to find a studio to back the biopic but once he had the producer and his heroine, Shraddha Kapoor, on board, he finished the film in 42 days.

Quiz him on why he zeroed in on Shraddha who looks nothing like Haseena and he points out that after the first poster and promo this debate quickly died down. “I had seen her in Haider and knew she was my Haseena,“ asserts the maker who did three months of extensive rehearsals with the actress, which included costume trials, body suits and prosthetic tests. “We even hired an acting coach, Samar Singh, who analyses scripts, goes into the back stories of characters and develops them with the actors. Siddhanth Kapoor and Ankur Bhatia spent a month-and-a-half with him and Shraddha did a two-week extensive rehearsal with him and me. In those three months, we really got the character going.“

He adds that Siddhanth and Shraddha's sibling chemistry really helped the film, maintaining that in Hindi cinema, and maybe not even in Hollywood, a brother-sister duo has replayed their real-life roles. “Siddhanth's very protective about Shraddha while she looks up to him and that comes across on screen,“ says Apoorva, reminiscing about a scene in which Haseena and Dawood's father beats the latter with a belt in front of the family. “The noise of the fake belt sounded very real and Shraddha began crying. And in the scene where he meets her at night before leaving the country the lines are so emotional both Siddhanth and she started sobbing and we had to empty the set till they were composed.“

Sonakshi Sinha was initially supposed to play Haseena and the film was to roll last September. But John Abraham's injury pushed Force 2 forward. “So, one day Sonakshi and I sat down and decided she and I would do something else together in the future,“ says Apoorva.

Even though the film is yet to release, there's been talk of him glorifying Dawood and Haseena. He dismisses it saying it's easy to post something on the social media. “The film may be titled Haseena but it's not a one-sided view. There were 88 cases registered against her. I have done my research, met crime branch officers, lawyers and police commissioners, I have copies of the FIRs. But more than all this, the film is about a happily married girl with four kids whose life was affected by the shadow of her brother's personality. It's about what lead to her becoming Haseena Parkar,“ he says.

Flashback to 2013 and his last directorial, the Zanjeer remake, with Telugu superstar Ram Charan and Priyanka Chopra playing modern-day Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri. Where did he go wrong with that? “There were so many court cases that the budget just ballooned and it was impossible to make money. Also, people didn't like it anyway,“ Apoorva says.

When he's not making movies he goes globe-trotting and jumps out of planes. “My latest hobby is sky-diving. I've done 112-solo jumps,“ he beams. “Cooking is another passion. I took a year off after Mission Istaanbul to get a chef's degree from a French culinary institute in US. I also like playing cricket and play for two teams.“ So, what's next? “A long holiday for now,“ he laughs.

A well-paying job in New York's financial sector is a dream, but Ankur Bhatia had different goals. He left it to become an actor. A chance meeting with Apoorva Lakhia drew him back to India. “Mumbai is like New York; the only difference is that people look and sound familiar here,“ says Ankur, who plays Ibrahim Parkar, Haseena Parkar's husband, in the biopic of the same name. He spent a considerable amount of time trying to find his feet. BT met the Bhopal-bred actor, who, after a bit role in Zanjeer and a supporting role in Sarbjit, is ready for his third outing. Excerpts...

It's hard to recall the work that you have done so far. Could there have been a better start?
Yes, but let's look at the positive side - I had a decent start. I'm not from a film family to get a crackling launch. Zanjeer was a stepping stone in terms of mainstream movies since I had done independent work in the US. I met director Apoorva Lakhia while I was in America. I returned to India but he didn't have work for me then. I spent two months meeting people, but nothing worked out. The day I was about to leave Mumbai, Apoorva cast me in a role that had been abandoned by another actor. It was a five-day shoot that took 18 months. I did two Telugu films in the interim. Those three films became my learning grounds. Then came Sarbjit for which I grew a beard and put on weight since the character had an age graph. I got decent reviews, but no one recalls me because of my look. That movie, and working with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Randeep Hooda and Richa Chadha filled me with confidence.

How did you land a role in Haseena Parkar?
I met Apoorva when he was planning it. He told me that although I fit the bill appearance-wise - Ibrahim Parkar was also 6 feet tall - I needed to audition. He also made me do thorough research. I went over to Jairaj Lane where the family stayed and Ibrahim ran a restaurant, the only vegetarian eatery in the Muslim-neighbourhood that catered to Maharashtrian mill workers. Given his physique, he also doubled up as a Bollywood stuntman. He used to mimic actors and tease Haseena. He had a swagger and held his own wherever he was. He was a lovely, lively guy. I had a different picture of him in my head when I landed the film. Ibrahim is a pivotal part of Haseena's story, and I earned the role for myself.

While working with actresses like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Sarbjit) and Shraddha Kapoor (Haseena Parkar), does their star power intimidate you?
Once you start shooting, everything changes. During Sarbjit, I was a tad nervous while I was in the vanity van, but once I stepped out, I started seeing everyone as the characters they play. Aishwarya was Dalbir and I was her husband. It's only because of that attitude that I could hold her hand firmly and tell her, 'Aaj gayi, to phir wapas mat aana.' That scene looks convincing because I wasn't intimidated. My first big scene with Shraddha in Haseena Parkar was our wedding night sequence, but since we had a comfort zone, it fell into place. I understand that I am an actor and so are the others. I am confident in my shoes, no matter who I share the screen with.

Is the industry more open to newcomers now?
There are more avenues for newcomers and auditions have made the casting process more transparent, but there's still time for the dust to settle. Auditioning for roles worked for me, but there are many aspirants who are not so lucky. When I look back, I feel that my story is similar to Urmila Matondkar's in Rangeela - she goes from being a background dancer to the leading lady. I was in a similar space in Zanjeer and today, I'm playing a pivotal role.

Has your family come around with your change in profession?
My father was aghast when I left my job in America, but later, he and my mother came around. After I returned to India, my father suffered a cardiac issue and my mother was diagnosed with cancer. So, thanks to this job, I was here when my parents needed my brother and me the most. That's why I believe that everything happens for a reason.