'I Smiled Each Time Amitabh Slipped'

Rajesh Khanna: 'When I saw Namak Haram, I knew my time was up.'
'I told Hrishida, "Here is the superstar of tomorrow".'

Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna have rarely shared a platform. But when they have, Bollywood's biggest superstars certainly know how to pull off a show.

So their joint interview for a 1990 edition of the Movie magazine was a read for the ages.

• 'You Are Not Christ And I Am Not Gandhi'

Here's another interesting excerpt from their conversation, as told to then Movie editor Dinesh Raheja.

Amit, in my esteem you are a very good actor. But you've become typecast as the angry man. Do you agree that you've become a victim of your own image?

Amitabh Bachchan: Absolutely. It's sad because every time something else was tried out, it didn't succeed.

Eventually, you know, we are all going to end up doing character roles!

Kaka has been a romantic all his life, so perhaps he will continue to play romantic roles.

But I will not be able to. So it's pack up time for me.

Rajesh Khanna: No, I don't agree with you at all. A good actor never says die.

I saw just two reels of Deewar and honestly, I said, 'Wah kya baat hai!'

Talent was there in Anand or Namak Haram too. I mean handi mein se agar chawal ka ek daana nikalo to pata lag jaata hai. But talent needs the right break.

After Deewar, I always envied him.

Only thing is, I smiled each time he slipped because he made the same mistakes that I once made.

I would like to ask you a personal question. People say that Rajesh Khanna is a very calculative person. Was I ever mean as a senior to a junior?

Amitabh Bachchan: We never ever bickered or argued or tried to upstage one another in any manner.

When Hrishida asked me to work with Rajesh Khanna in Anand, it was a dream come true for me.

The hysteria that be evoked was witnessed for the first time in the history of Hindi films. I got famous purely because I was working with Rajesh Khanna.

People came and asked me questions like 'How does he look?', 'What does he do?'

So I became very important, thanks to him. I have always had the greatest respect for Kaka.

How do you feel about the fact that you replaced Rajesh Khanna at the Number 1 position?

Amitabh Bachchan: It's just a question of economics. It's not that somebody outshone the other.

And you, Rajesh? How did you feel about his ascendancy directly dislodging you?

Rajesh Khanna: When I saw Namak Haram at a trial at Liberty cinema, I knew my time was up.

I told Hrishida, 'Here is the superstar of tomorrow.'

When it was Amitabh Bachchan at the top, no other star came anywhere near. You were Number 1 to 10, the next one was Number 11.

Before that, there was only Rajesh Khanna.

Both of you married talented actresses who stopped working after marriage. Why did you curb them?

Rajesh Khanna: I had no problems about my wife working.

But when I married Dimple, I wanted a mother for my children. I didn't want them to be brought up by servants.

And I had no idea of Dimple's talent; Bobby was still not released.

Recently, when I told one of my daughters Twinkle, that if she would like to act in a film, I would produce one for her.

She said, 'You will let me act, but to mummy you say no.'

I said, 'For the simple reason that I am your father and not your husband.' To curb talent is cruel. By the time I saw Bobby our first daughter was already born.

Amitabh Bachchan: I feel that how I want my married life to be conducted should really be between Jaya and me.

Anyway, I have never objected to Jaya working in films.

But she herself said, 'I don't feel nice working in films.'

Rajesh Khanna: Why did she work in Silsila?

Amitabh Bachchan: I left it entirely on her. If she wanted to work, she did.

Rajesh Khanna: When you say you are finished, I don't agree because a good actor is never finished. I don't like your pessimism.

Amitabh Bachchan: I am not renouncing acting.

But that kind of hysteria, that mystique, the adulation surely cannot exist forever.

Rajesh Khanna: Listen to me, recently I attended a show with you and you were superb.

Amitabh Bachchan: Maybe I should meet you more often Kaka! You are very complimentary!