The best of Rakesh Roshan
Top 5 as a director:
1. Khudgarz (1987)
The script of Rakesh Roshan's directorial debut Khudgarz was a reworking of a play by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, with several populist twists thrown in for good measure. It gave Shatrughan Sinha, who played a thunderous character called Bijari, a new lease of life at the box office.
Establishing that he had his finger firmly on the audience's pulse, Rakesh adeptly helmed this crowd pleaser about two friends, one rich (Jeetendra) and one poor (Shatrughan Sinha). Convoluted misunderstandings, vows of revenge and a growing list of grudges later, they part ways. Love among the next generation (Govinda and Neelam) does not help mend bridges as Rakesh raises the drama to operatic levels for the climax.
Khudgarz's success meant the start of Rakesh's 'K series' of films. Remarkably, most of Rakesh's successful films as a hero too had names beginning with the letter 'K.' And after Khudgarz, Rakesh made sure that all his films as a director too began with his lucky alphabet.
Incidentally, With a little help from my friends could well have been Rakesh Roshan's theme song. He made his first production, Aap Ke Deewane, a saleable proposition by casting close friend Rishi Kapoor and in his directorial debut, he signed on good buddy Jeetendra.