Amitabh Bachchan’s stardom is still unmatched even after decades of ruling over Bollywood. From being called the ‘angry young man’ to establishing himself as ‘Big B’, the actor reached the peak of his career long ago and has never looked back. However, recently veteran lyricist and writer, Javed Akhtar talked about how Jaya Bachchan always trusted Amitabh and his talent even when he was giving a string of flops before Zanjeer.
Jaya Bachchan had great respect for Amitabh Bachchan’s talent, even though his 11 films had flopped
Amitabh Bachchan made his film debut in 1969 with the film, Saat Hindustani. However, he received recognition after appearing in a supporting role in Rajesh Khanna’s film, Anand. This helped him to lend lead roles, but unfortunately all of these movies tanked in the box office. However veteran writer, Javed Akhtar said in an interview with Hook Global that there were a few people who recongised his talent and knew that he was a “volcano, waiting to erupt”. He said that one of those person was Jaya Bachchan (Jaya Bhaduri then), who wasn’t yet married to Big B at the time. However she had great respect for his talent. Javed Akhtar was quoted as saying:
“Jaya ji wasn’t his wife then, knew what he was and had great respect for his talent. Hrishikesh Mukherjee had a great respect for his talent, and kept on giving him work. We saw him in a film that didn’t do well, but we could see that he is a volcano, waiting to erupt. He was very good in his worst films also. The film was bad, the script was bad, the dialogue was bad, the screenplay was wrong, but his work was impeccable. We had total confidence. Here is a major, major star who was waiting for the right opportunity.”
