Rajesh Khanna — Amitabh Bachchan career graphs
thanks greatly to Asli Jat for this treasure trove of info..
[click on each page, enlarge, and then scroll up and down with the cursor on the page to read every bit]
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SATYAMSHOT 
December 4, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Thanks Asli Jaat.
Great read, and sent me down memory lane……..
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December 4, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Awesome to read, thanks so much Asli Jaat.
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December 4, 2009 at 12:22 PM
btw- Satyam and Q- I finally finished Sacred Games!! Loved it, it can be turned into a mini series !!!
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December 4, 2009 at 12:41 PM
that’s great Rocky, what’s next on the list?
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December 4, 2009 at 12:48 PM
I don’t know- may be Death of Vishnu? or maybe Vikram’s earlier novel?
I usually take a break of 2-3 weeks so that I can listen to the Music CDs!! LOL!!
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December 4, 2009 at 12:59 PM
I preferred Age of Shiva to Death of Vishnu.
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December 5, 2009 at 7:16 AM
I got a copy of AGE OF SHIVA finally..
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December 4, 2009 at 1:01 PM
I would strongly recommend this:
this is an addictive tale of romance and obsession.. and has some very ‘Indian film’ elements to it.. don’t want to give more away..
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December 4, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Thanks will try to get it !
the price seems pretty low for an audio book.
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December 5, 2009 at 7:16 AM
Have you read Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance?
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December 4, 2009 at 3:10 PM
so glad you like it — yeah it is such a gripping and interesting read, and one of the best indian english novels in recent times…
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December 4, 2009 at 5:13 PM
Ya , I loved the use of local lingo spread thruout!
may be I should read this NEW book by Arun Shourie( highly doubt though that it will be avilable on audobook)
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/under-the-minds-microscope/550077/0
did you ever read the jaswant singh’s book??
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December 4, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Satyam and Q-you may have already read this but if not then it is pretty interesting read- Long but then sometimes besides writing long essays it is good to even read long essays- LOL !!
Sunil Khilnani read first, from The Idea of India, and Ardeshir and I followed. The moderator then opened the floor for questions from the audience. One of the first queries came at Sunil: “How can you live abroad and write about India?” Sunil answered, and as he did, I thought about what an odd question this was, coming from a room full of Indians who had probably studied Wordsworth under neem trees and written authoritatively about the idea of Byron from Allahbad
The Cult of Authenticity
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December 4, 2009 at 12:45 PM
the title seems vaguely familiar Rocky but I don’t remember it very much even if I have read it.. therefore will revisit it.. thanks much..
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December 4, 2009 at 5:15 PM
Bhanu Pratap on Arun Shourie-
He is also an exemplar of public reason. Whether you agree or disagree, the argument is clearly laid out and can be engaged with.
hmmmm…. can be said of atleast one more person here !! LOL !!
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December 5, 2009 at 12:27 AM
I have never ever understood how The Great Gambler had flopped. This is one movie that has aged like the finest of wines. I mustve seen it more than 20 times, and still find the urge to see it again and again. Total masala, with mind blowing music, beautiful locations, action, Amitabh in a double, what more could one ask for. And yet, in the middle of his great BO run, this movie flopped. Seriously, if an Amitabh movie needs to be remade, it should be The Great Gambler, just so that it can be declared a Superhit in its new avatar.
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December 6, 2009 at 9:10 AM
The Great gambler was a flop because it was a solo star. Amitabh was not a crowd puller & he need another co-star besides him.
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December 6, 2009 at 9:13 AM
I am not sure if The Great Gambler was a flop.
Where I lived, it did a silver jubliee. When I saw it again in 16th week, it was packed. BTW, second time I went because went to see Jurmana which was sold out and TGG was running right opposite.
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December 6, 2009 at 9:44 AM
The great Gambler was one of 1979’s top 5 grossers. The only non-Bachchan film in that top 5 was jaani Dushman. It grossed as much as Rishi Kapoor’s Sargam and was way ahead of some other successful films that year. But of course there was the very high Bachchan bar. I personally don’t have a problem with it to the extent that he usually met those standards. But these films cannot be called flops outside of all context. There was the ‘Bachchan flop’, a term commonly used in that period which basically translated into a hit for any other star! The same year Kaala Pathar was the third highest grosser but some considered the performance disappointing. Again the expectation was that this would be a historic grosser like AAA or Trishul and that didn’t happen. Now the same year the top two grossers, Natwarlal and Suhaag, were well ahead of Kaala Pathar’s gross and even more ahead of great Gambler. Which shows the stratosphere Bachchan operated in. So the fact that you saw a Great Gambler silver jubilee is not at all odd. It was a very significant grosser, just didn’t meet those higher expectations. As many people have pointed out including that recent piece comparing his career with Khanna’s for an entire period (although that particular piece was published in ’84 and can only therefore cover that period) that between ’73 and ’92 when Bachchan finally took off for five years there were only a handful of films that even lost money! All the other ‘Bachchan flops’ were actually quite profitable.
In any case here’s a video I put up not too long ago..
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December 7, 2009 at 4:33 AM
This article said it is a flop…..???
…It is OK with me cause I think the whole hit/flop things is mafia decided. They can purchase and price any “shit” movie and call it a “hit”.
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December 8, 2009 at 10:21 PM
They can purchase a “shit” movie, remove the “ass” and call it a “hit”.
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December 6, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Re: “The Great gambler was a flop because it was a solo star. Amitabh was not a crowd puller & he need another co-star besides him.”
Agreed: always felt Navin Nischol wasn’t getting his due in films like Desh Premee; and Amjad Khan was similarly ignored in Yaarana; Om Prakash also got short shrift in Sharaabi. I smell a conspiracy here, one targeted against the real superstar of the era: Shashi Kapoor (Deewar, Kabhi Kabhi, Suhaag, Namak Halaal — what a box office run).
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December 7, 2009 at 5:02 AM
Try run a business….
….and try to create value propositions so our end customer will be happy.
BUT!
the middle man, the distributors will short-hand both the producers and the retailers.
It is not conspiracy….but it evolved to be that way as a tendency due to greed, no empathy, with the value of networking and market channels.
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December 5, 2009 at 1:24 PM
Thanks a billion Asli Jat and Satyam for this masterpiece.It has made my day and a very crucial part of my collection of Rajesh Khanna articles.
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December 5, 2009 at 8:20 PM
So Namak Haram is considered a hit/success for Amitabh Bachchan, but a flop and failure for Rajesh Khanna?
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December 6, 2009 at 3:55 AM
This 25 year old article was a planted one which showed Rajesh Khanna in poor light. The article printed in 1984 was published at a time was Rajesh Khanna was back in reckoning and had signed over 20 movies and was considered strongly as roaring again.
Rajesh Khanna had a hattrick of hits in a row- Avatar, Souten and Agar Tum Na Hote. He was signed back by Shakti Samanta ( Awaaz), B R Chopra ( Awam), Aravind Sen ( Nasihat), Prakash Mehra ( Dost Dushman), Yash Chopra ( Vijay) and a no of south Indian directors. The article ridicules him professionally, shows that his hit movies also were flops like – Karm, Agar Tum Na Hote, Kudrat, Ashanti, Dharam Kanta, Aanchal etc.. Please ignore the writers comments on hits and flops.
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December 6, 2009 at 8:49 AM
Why the distributor mafias just boastfully admitted it that they actually cab defined what is a hit and what is a flop. Rajesh did not hve issues with the directors. Yash actually credited Rajesh Khanna for not demanding his terms for the making of Daag. I have the tape of this confession.
Rajesh Khanna have his differences & tussle with these distributor mafias. He is the Namal Haram to these business manipulating distributors who tried to bulldoze & had their ways into film makings.
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December 6, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Lol! Amitabh sent his photos around just like a female model? How insane?
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December 6, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Thanks for this post Satyam ji and AJ ji….
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December 7, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Rajesh Khanna movie performance was better than as stated in the article above. I mean the movies post 1979.
He had worked with all big houses in post 1979- F C Mehra ( Ashanti), Sultan Ahmad ( Dharam Kanta), Mushir Riaz and Vijay Anand ( Rajput), Tito( Babu),Chetan Anand( Kudrat), Mohan Kumar ( Avatar), J OmPrakash ( Aakhir Kyon?), B R Chopra ( Awam), Yash Chopra( Vijay), Shakti Samanta( Awaaz), Pramod Chakraborty( Shatru), Aravinda Sen( Nasihat), Sohanlal Kanwar( Dhanwan, Papi Pet, Awara Baap). South Indian houses in – Bandish, Maqsad, Asha Jyoti, Masterji, Dil e Nadaan, Naya Kadam, Bewafaii( Devar)- plus Esmayeel Shroff( Thodisi Bewafaii), Amabarish Sangal ( Dard) etc.
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December 8, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Super Star Rajesh Khanna’s performance in his each movie and every time is different and he shows tremendous versatility in his whole career, And never overacts. Above all his unparallel classic performances in every movie not like other stars in Bollywood. Super Star Rajesh Khanna cannot be compared with any other stars he is above all and every one.
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December 10, 2009 at 10:29 PM
Copy/paste comments by Suhan from RK forum:
My two cents on this finally. It seems to me to be much of the ‘same old, same old’ about an indisciplined RK and a committed AB! Given that this was written in 1984 when AB was at the height of his powers, the writer obviously didn’t want to upset the applecart. The trade rankings of the films in terms of BO performance was interesting but flawed in some instances which makes me question the whole analysis. E.g., it ranks AB’s Inquilab as a hit—now that’s a bit much. Conversely Kaka’s Anurodh is listed as a flop which it definitely was not, in fact was a silver jubilee in various places, the music certainly went platinum and the film was seen largely on the strength of that. Doesn’t mention Agar Tum Na Hote and Dard as hits which I believe they’re acknowledged to be. Says AB had only 5 flops in his entire career till then as all his films which were perceived to be flops eventually made money through reruns, etc. Was the same analytical rigor applied to Kaka’s films?
In any event, I think a dispassionate analysis of both their work in their peak periods hasn’t been done yet. The time may be right now but though AB’s managed to keep himself in the limelight and deservedly so—he’s worked nonstop these last few years after his resurrection with Mohabbatein, the interest in Kaka is not evident. So who knows if it’ll be done at all?
However, I sincerely believe that a new generation is rediscovering Kaka through youtube and is surprised at the quality of the films especially in the early years and also some of the stuff up to about the mid 80s. If this holds then there will be a resurgence of interest in Kaka which might prompt some from the new lot of directors to work with him provided of course that HE wants it. At least one can always hope, forlornly perhaps!!
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