Blast from the Past: Life After Agneepath – Amitabh Bachchan Interview

Life After Agneepath – Amitabh Bachchan Interview from Filmfare May 1990. There are a lot of interesting things about Agneepath and Amitabh’s late 80’s career in this interview.

Click on Continue Reading for Part 2 and Part 3 Interviews

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9 Comments
  1. Baba Ji 12 years ago

    Very interesting article sputnik.Thanks for posting and keep up the good work.

    I am surprised to learn that shahehshah was not a clean hit (Akshay kumar type BO).From 1985 to 1990 amitabh had no hits? thats a really long time.I think this is the time when anil kapoor rose to stardom. I think everyone knew mithun was added for commerical viablity in AP bcos bachan had lost all his BO clout,cannot believe he had 5 consecutive flops.I think post 1985,amitabh had a horrid time trying to figure out a reinvention of some sort,it took him more than decade when he he came back in KBC.

    • Author
      sputnik 12 years ago

      Thanks Baba. Will try to keep posting interesting stuff.

      I don’t know about the distributor figure nonsense but back then movies used to be considered Hit by everyone if they ran for 100 days in regular shows. I am not sure about Shahenshah but I think Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi, Toofan, Jaadugar, Main Azaad Hoon, Akayla were all flops. His bad political stint also hurt his movie career but then his movies had turned more crappier. Mard was also crap but when a movie is a big hit people don’t see the problem.

      Amitabh did most of his good work and starred in good films till the late 70s. Post Amar Akbar Antony, Amitabh mostly did bad films and did the same acting in same/similar roles.

      Whats interesting is that Mithun is supposed to have been foisted on the movie because of Yash Johar. Karan Johar corrected his father’s mistake by removing Mithun’s character from the remake. Remember that Karan Malhotra interview where he was saying that Mitun’s character was cult and no one could play that role.You and me had agreed that it was a bad stereotype and that is why it was removed. This article just confirms that.

      What’s also interesting is it says that Amitabh has been calling Anil Kapoor the “new Number One”. I always thought Anil Kapoor proclaimed himself as Number One. I think Anil Kapoor wasn’t given proper credit for his success in the 80s because Amitabh was still there. Anil was giving good performances (Woh Saat Din, Saaheb, Chameli Ki Shaadi) as well as starring in hits (Jaanbaaz, Karma, Tezaab, Ram Lakhan, Mr India).

  2. Baba Ji 12 years ago

    Another point in the article is the same whichi have been saying since long,amitabh has done more than 100 films and barely 5-6 films are geuinely good as mentioned in the article too.I think post 1980 he did lot of crap,He should thank salim javed for whatever little glory they gave him in some good films.

  3. Author
    sputnik 12 years ago

    I think all top stars (Dilip, Amitabh, SRK) go through a phase where their movies don’t do as well as they used to. Dilip lost to Rajendra Kumar in the 60s and did not have a single hit in the 70s. But he reinvented himself in the 80s in older roles. Amitabh had the same problem in late 80s and had horrible 90s but reinvented himself in the 2000s in older roles. SRK will run into that same problem sooner or later.

    Bikram Singh, the critic says in the article that “The best thing for him to do now is to think in terms of good films and good roles, and to forget about the box-office”.

    I think this advice applies equally well to SRK today. Instead of doing good roles in good films like Chak De India or Swades and forget about the boxoffice he is still trying to regain his Number One spot by doing movies like Chennai Express and that next Yash Chopra one. I doubt if these movies will be any good.

    • Baba Ji 12 years ago

      yes sputnik.

      Not just the top stars,any actor whose stardom is driven by sole BO and not by good scripts will face such problems sooner or later.akshay overdid his comedy bit after a very good 2007 and now he is struggling in the genre.Salman is on a masala action overdrive which will exhaust soon.

  4. Abhijit Gupta 11 years ago

    In my humble opinion articles and interviews should always be read and conclusions should be drawn in context of the period and the situation.
    The case of Anil Kapoor was interesting. Amitabh’s films were certainly not doing well at that time. There was a lot of negativity around. People were talking about new trends being set, sort of reality & modernity in presentation and melody in music making a come back with Qayamat Se Qaymat Tak, Maine Pyaar Kiya, Chandni, Tezaab, Ghayal, Sadak & Parinda to name a few although these movies were still larger than life. From the very onset of his career (Anil being a real hindi film student and follower of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar & Guru Dutt) he always made moves to become an all time great like his idols, was definitely a very good actor and was making all efforts to get the best projects, best roles, best scripts and top heroines. He also ensured that most of his roles (particularly between 1987-1992) justified his talent. I can give countless examples of all this and the alleged manipulations (as per gossip columns of the period) he did with brother Boney to get the best roles, best banners and publicize himself as the next superstar.
    But friends let me give you a common junta perspective along with the distributor’s perspective (I come from a family which earlier ran a 50 yr old distribution company in Kolkata). From box office point of view Anil kapoor could hardly get an initial which was the benchmark of real stars particularly in 1970-1990. In fact real stars have made countless bad films into profitable ones. Anil Kapoor’s peak came in 1988 with Tezaab followed by Ram lakhan and Rakhwala to be precise. This is when his camp started proclaiming in magazines that he had surpassed superstar Mithun (the most definte No.2 of the period) and would topple megastar Bachhan soon. Sadly for him, things started changing with failure of a high profile project like Jeevan Ek Shanghursh. Again Roop Ki Rani looked like his last attempt to remain in the race. And was gradually overtaken by new sensation Salman Khan (MPK, Baaghi, Kurbaan, Sanam Bewafa) and the comeback star kids Sunny (Ghayal, Tridev etc) & Sanjay Dutt (Saajan, Sadak, Khalnayak). Prior to this short period of super success and post that Anil always remained a brilliant actor who could generally deliver occasional hits with big directors and only top heroines.
    By the way believe me Jaanbaaz did well only in Mumbai, major credit for Mr. India went to Sridevi, Amrish Puri, Shekhar kapoor and the technique and Karma was essentially about Dilip Kumar & Subhash Ghai. So becoming number one or overtaking Mithun and the great Bachhan was more of a propaganda. Don’t take me as anti-Anil. He was a good actor since day one and gave many solid performances unlike the star-kids who evolved much later. Also post Virasat Anil Kapoor was no longer the big talking – so called contender of the throne. His attitude changed and he became matured and we can see how he has benefited till today.
    I know the article is about Amitabh and I really want to write a lot about him, Agneepath and Mithun in my next posts.

    • vivek 8 years ago

      very good post…thanks, always loved reading old box office stats and old reports being a movie buff.

  5. Rajib 11 years ago

    Which distribution company you bekongs to ? waiting for your next post abt Amitabh.

  6. Bored 11 years ago

    @Abhijit Gupta – Was a pleasure to read your comment – and yes that was exactly how it was for Anil Kapoor.
    Btw, Mithun was probably a bigger star in Bengal than pan-India. Anil just took advantage of the fact that that there was no reigning superstar at that time (only a few stars and the faded Amitabh) to spread his own hyperbole – Roop Ki Rani Chodo Ka Raja finally shut him up.

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