Not every relationship starts well, ends well. An actor Rajesh Khanna and filmmaker Yash Chopra figures, after two successful efforts, Itefaq and Daag–the director’s first film as an independent producer–hit a bad spot, both sides blamed each other for the fallout. In Yasser Usman’s book, Rajesh Khanna: The Untold Story of India’s First Superstar, the author captures how cracks began to appear when Yash Chopra decided to cast Amitabh Bachchan as the hero of his film Deewar, despite Rajesh Khanna speaking when he said that the film first gave him.
The film’s producer Salim Khan, however, told the writer that “there are no talks” with Rajesh Khanna for the lead role, as he wrote to Amitabh Bachchan. After Deewar, Yash Chopra started planning his next drama, Kabhi Kabhie–a multi-starrer romantic drama spanning two generations, helmed by a former love poet, actor Rajesh Khanna. But, he was never considered for the part again, which went to Amitabh Bachchan- an anti-actor because he had shown himself to be an ‘angry young man.’
While Yash Chopra officially approved signing Amitabh for his romantic films Kabhi Kabhie and Silsilia as a matter of “better planning”, the writer of the said films, Sagar Sarhadi, who also knew Rajesh Khanna during his theater days, told the writer a different story. .
“He remembers once asking Yash Chopra why he didn’t sign Rajesh again after doing a successful film like Daag. Yash Chopra replied, ‘Yaar, working with him is very difficult… He calls his producers to his house and indulges in alcohol till late (night). Until now he does not want to sleep himself, the producers must show their presence there. Then if he is going to shoot in Madras, its producers will drop him at the airport and welcome him back. I can’t do this. I can’t deal with these stars all the time.’”
Rajesh Khanna.
Bharathi S Pradhan, editor of Film Street Journal, was of the opinion that Yash Chopra appeased Rajesh Khanna until he needed him, and then found another way in Amitabh Bachchan. Otherwise, he believed, Yash Chopra “would have continued to do whatever Rajesh Khanna asked him to do.”
However, the actor had his own reasons why he did not collaborate with Yash Chopra after their initial success. The book explains that Rajesh Khanna “did not like at all” the filmmaker who switched from him to Amitabh Bachchan.
“In any case, after Namak Haraam, he was very insecure about Amitabh. Sagar Sarhadi told me, ‘Once I went to Khandala to write a script. I met Rajesh Khanna there. I asked him, ‘Yaar, why don’t you do films with Yash Chopra?’ He angrily replied, ‘Yash is not a good director. You make me work hard from morning till night. I can’t work that hard.’ I started laughing at his answer,” the book quoted.
Yash Chopra and Rajesh Khanna worked again in the 1988 film Vijay- which was a box office failure.
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