Who is not familiar with the epic bromance of Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan? Their Jodi has set a benchmark for others to follow! Jai and Veeru’s friendship anthem has been crooned since Sholay’s release in 1975. The movie won many accolades too. But did you know Dharmendra recommended Amitabh for Sholay?
Speaking about it at an event, Veeru looked upset with his Jai. Dharmendra said now that Amitabh Bachchan has acknowledged that he was recommended by the former for Jai’s role, that shows Big B’s greatness and not his.
“Amitabh says NOW that I recommended him. If he is saying that from where he is now, from such a dizzying height, people will talk about his greatness. He never said earlier that I had recommended him. So now when he says it, people will say he is great, not I,” stated the actor.
Dharmendra was already a superstar before Sholay’s release. In a career spanning over 50 years, he has worked in over 300 movies but never got the ‘Best Actor Award’. It was only a few years ago that Dharmendra received a Lifetime Achievement Award by Dilip Kumar.
However, this is not the first time that Amitabh Bachchan has been accused ofsidelining other actors.
Earlier this year, Rishi Kapoor unveiled his autobiography ‘Khullam Khulla: Uncensored’. While the book was full of anecdotes, a paragraph about Big B caught our attention.
Rishi wrote how he still has a ‘lingering issue’ with Amitabh Bachchan.In the era of action films, roles were specifically written for the ‘Angry Young Man’ of Bollywood. In multi-starrers directors and writers chose important roles for him. This led to actors like himself, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna to get sidelined.
Veteran Kapoor actor further added that Bachchan never admitted to getting preferential treatment in any interview or book. How Bachchan always credited his success to his directors and writers. Not to the co-stars that also contributed to his success.
In that era, Dharmendra along with other actors slowly got sidelined as Amitabh Bachchan stole the limelight.
