50 years of Deewar: When Salim Javed did unthinkable for Amitabh Bachchan

Deewar is a landmark movie that consolidated the position of Amitabh Bachchan as Angry Young Man in Bollywood. If Zanjeer introduced Big B as a highly talented actor, Deewar proved that he was here to stay. When the movie was released almost 50 years ago everyone thought that no one could have done the role of Vijay in Deewar better than Amitabh Bachchan.

Gulshan Rai wanted Rajesh Khanna as the lead hero

Surprisingly, that was not something that the producer of the movie –Gulshan Rai thought at that time. In those days Rajesh Khanna was the biggest superstar of India and Rai had already decided that Kaka would portray Vijay in this movie. Incidentally, Salim-Javed who were the most famous writing duos of that time had written the script of this movie and they wanted only Amitabh Bachchan to play Vijay.

They had seen how his superb acting had elevated the lead role of the police officer in Zanjeer. Hence when the time came, both Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar told Gulshan Rai that they would only work with him if the producer agreed to cast Amitabh in Deewar. It was not an easy task for the writers to convince Gulshan Rai but they gave the producer an ultimatum and since at that time the name of Salim Javed was synonymous with blockbuster success Rai had to accept their request.

Salim Khan said that Amitabh as Vijay in Deewar was the ideal casting

Years later Salim Khan during an interview said that the casting of Amitabh as Vijay in Deewar was ideal whereas if the role had gone to Rajesh Khanna or any other actor it would have been a compromised casting. Nonetheless, Javed Akhtar earlier did not have a good experience working with Rajesh Khanna when they worked with him on movies like Andaz and Haathi Mere Saathi.

The famous lyricist stated, “There came a time when we realised that it would be difficult for us to work together. He was surrounded by so many people, so many sycophants, and yes men, it was difficult to work with him. So, we parted ways.”

That is why they were adamant about casting Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar and the blockbuster success of the movie proved that their decision was more than perfect.