Making of A Super Star
Naseeruddin Shah once said about Amitabh Bachchan, “It’s his amazing ability to take a completely stupid scene and not just make it believable on screen but create magic out of it that makes him what he is”. Now, the comments may not be exactly what I quoted here, but they were something along these lines. This was a super actor paying tribute to the biggest super star ever in the history of Hindi cinema, on one of the umpteen programs on channel V, paying tribute to the phenomenon called Amitabh Bachchan, during the time when Amitabh was on a self prescribed 5 year break.
Amitabh himself, when asked about the secret of his success, used to give a simple answer “I do what the director asks me to do. If the director says get the chicken out of an egg, I say, yes sir.” And he did exactly that once in Coolie. This scene where Amitabh tries to make an omelet with the help of a recipe being given out on Radio, while the Radio channel keeps flipping between Cooking program and Exercise Program. This was the superstar making a fool of him and the audience didn’t say “what the heck?” Instead, the audience laughed hard. Coolie and Mard were probably two most absurd movies of all time and both were huge hits, credit goes to the man who hogged 80% of the footage in these films.
What gives an actor such power to lift a scene out of its total stupidity and create pure magic on screen? What gives them the super-confidence that he or she can carry the scene when it doesn’t make any sense even by wildest leap of imagination? This is my attempt to explore that.
Beaten track doesn’t lead to super stardom
When I started actively watching films, in 80’s, Mithun Chakraborty was the biggest star. However unbelievable it may sound now but Mithun was the busiest star in 80’s, had a strong fan following (even out side of Kolkata) and was considered number one star in those days. But even in his best days, Mithun was never called a super star, even though the superstar himself was in semi-retirement because of his political career. Mithun was at best called a poor man’s Amitabh Bachchan and he used to wear the tag without any complaints. I used to wonder why, simply because I had grown up in eighties and hadn’t seen the frenzy a new Amitabh film used to create in his hey days. Of course, these were eighties and as I would learn later on that this were probably the worst period for Hindi cinema. If you can’t relate to what I mean, read Oz’s Torture Series, where he re-reviews some of the gems from the decade. However, what Oz doesn’t tell you is that in 80’s, mediocrity was prevalent in every aspect of Indian society. Politics, economy, job scene, music and even cricket (before and after the fluke of 83 world cup), we were reaching a new low every year. It was quite frustrating to be in India or be an Indian those days.
Back to films again, the problem was Mithun like every actor those days, was rehashing a typical Bachchan role from 70’s and 80’s. Back in 1973, when Zanjeer came, this character was quite a novelty and opened the road to superstardom for Amitabh. Amitabh Bachchan made this coveted character, late known as “Angry Young Man” his own, and rode this perfect storm created by prevailing social and economic conditions, emergence of a new breed of directors and filmmakers and more than anything else, a writer-jodi known as Salim-Javed.
Hindi film industry never fully came out of this storm. I once knew someone who used to blame Amitabh for ruining the Hindi film industry, because of the profound impact he had on the industry. Now that’s going too far, but if you saw the quality of films being made in 80’s, you would understand the statement. . Film after film, the industry was rehashing Amitabh’s films and characters played by him. Even seeing the original super star Rajesh Khanna, in those days, it was very difficult to believe that this guy once was so phenomenal that the pundits had to coin a new term for the kind of success he had achieved. Rajesh Khanna looked out of shape, had a bad hairdo and used to sleep walk through his roles in films after films in 80’s. If you want to sample the gems that Rajesh Khanna dished out in 80s, here’s one. In this film he plays an action here for most part and even attempts break dance aka Mithun Chakraborty, with his paunch intact.
The scenario wouldn’t change even when the next generation of actors started making mark. Anil Kapoor saw success in roles that were originally written with Amitabh in mind. For a year or two, it did look like Anil Kapoor could become the next super star. He had the hits – Tezaab, Ram Lakhan, the roles such as Eeshwar and load of talent ability to work hard. Somehow Anil Kapoor couldn’t close the deal. He later blamed it on Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, a film that cost a fortune and he had to sign up bad films to recoup the damage. The real problem was that he wasn’t starting anything new, a key criterion for someone to become a super star.
Take risks, Start a new era
We didn’t have to wait for the too long for the change to come. QSQT was released the same year that Tezaab came, 1988. It was a small film that nobody had heard about and introduced two new stars, a rare phenomenon in those days. MPK came a year later. Amir Khan and more prominently Salman Khan created the new image of Hindi film hero – a young, urbanized youth who knew how to dress well for the times and didn’t necessarily had to shout “Kutte Kamine main tera khoon pee jaunga”. But the two Khans were reluctant to embrace the new world that they were responsible for creating. Even they didn’t know that a new era had begun in Hindi films and the days of heroes simply playing clones of Mr. Bachchan were over. I remember Salman Khan once accepting his boyish looks as his weakness for the simple reason that he didn’t look mature enough to play a cop or lawyer, two most common roles played by a Hindi film hero. Salman did that in his third or forth film and flopped badly. The film was Patthar Ke Phool and Salman played a cop in the film. Amir Khan was playing it extra safe, sticking to love stories until he could graduate to play to a typical Hindi film hero. That’s when he refused Darr because it went against his lover boy image of those days among other reasons.
Willingness to take risk was probably the only option another Khan had, who made a quite entry in a Rishi Kapoor, Divya Bharti film, quickly put together to cash in on the popularity of a Nadeem Shravan, Kumar Shanu music album. Unlike the other two Khans, Shahrukh Khan was not from film background; neither had he had the dashing looks of the two Khans. In fact, he looked ugly and un-presentable on screen.
But there was something about him; people called it his energy that made him standout on screen. In Deewana, where he makes his entry after interval, he looked shabby, spoke dialogues in a weird way, but took over the film completely in the second half and gave it the speed that was lacking in the first half. I first saw Shahrukh Khan on TV, no, not in Fauji, but in Circus. Circus was designed to be Nukkad part II, with many of the same cast members playing similar characters. It was hard not to notice Shahrukh Khan even though I only got watch one or two episodes of Circus and he didn’t even have the leading role.
Unlike Aamir or Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan took every risk and insisted on playing unconventional roles like that in Darr and Baazigar. Shahrukh Khan was breaking convention in real life too, compared to the heroes of that time. He always had a way with the media, gave them interesting quotes, was open about being married and was quite a charmer in real life to the extent of being a Chamcha. Suketu Mehta in his book “Maximum City” recounts how he saw Shahrukh Khan making tea for every one in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s house, where he had come for story sitting for Mission Kashmir. (The film originally planned with Amitabh and Shahrukh was later made with Hritik Roshan and Sanjay Dutt.) No wonder, Shahrukh became close with all the big directors of that time – Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Rakesh Roshan (before Roshan Jr. made a dhamakedar entry). Shahrukh Khan met two other criteria for becoming a super star – take risks and break convention in the way you carry yourself on and off screen.
Every diamond needs polishing but not every polishing leads to a great diamond
Unlike the Khans, Ajay Devgan made a debut with a “Revenge of 80’s” sort of a film. Phool Aur Kaante had everything in it – action, underworld don, fights, yet was fresh with Nadeem Shravan – Kumar Shanu brand of music and college life and love story ( the new must have masala ingredient after QSQT and MPK). Ajay Devgan had huge disadvantage in looks department but he more than made up by being a complete package. In those days, I read some interviews where people called him the first complete hero after Amitabh who could dance, fight and emote equally well. This would later become the handicap of Ajay Devgan. He would get stuck in 80’s cinema and his selection of scripts and approach to film making got stuck in 80’s too.
Aamir Khan was always considered the best actors of the three Khans and Salman was probably the best looking, but it was Shahrukh who first reached super stardom. It wasn’t easy and didn’t happen immediately even after Darr or Bazigar. First, a small side story.
I was in engineering college by then. I had a mentor type person, a PhD student named Bharat Bhushan Guliyani, who was the leader of a small gossip circle that we had formed. We would sip chai late in night or at wee hours of the morning and discuss all sorts of topics in the world. Guliyaniji (this is for your, Sir, wherever you are) had a thin and very small body frame, but a disproportionately huge head. He was a treasure of information; you could talk to him about any topic under the sun. Our biggest attraction was the collection of old Hindi film music that he used to carry, several boxes full of audio cassettes. Darr and Bazigar had released and had become huge hits. Everybody was considering Shahrukh the next super star but not Guliyani ji. Guliyani ji had a simple criterion, only stars who could deliver 3 super hits in a year were called super stars. According to him, Amitabh did it in 1978 with Muqaddar Ka Sikandar Trishul Don. Muka, Deewar and Don and Rajesh Khanna became a super star with Aan Milo Sajana, Aradhana and Do Raaste in 1969. It sounded fair and objective to me, kind of like Grand Slam, where you have to win all 4 in a year.
When he first came, Shahrukh Khan terribly lacked a screen presence, a short stature, ordinary looks and floppy hair didn’t help. See how he throws his hands around in blue shirt and pants in this Deewana song.
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Aisi Deewanagi
Even the legendary Amitabh Bachchan struggled with screen presence in his early days. In films like Saudagar, we see a sincere actor trying to make a mark, but struggling to find the bet posture to stand, and still unsure of the camera angles. His screen presence starts to grow in Anand and Namak Haram and we started to see the glimpses of the broodiness and anger that would set the screen on fire in his later movies.
The first time we see Shahrukh growing his screen presence was in some frames of Anjaam, a bad film by every other standard. DDLJ took care of the issue of screen presence once and for all for him. DDLJ gave him the image makeover he needed. This new image was cool and endearing and still rooted in Indian values thereby strongly appealing to NRIs, a new market that would make a big impact on the direction of Hindi film industry. This new image would convert Shahrukh, the risk taker into Shahrukh Khan the super star who repeats himself in and also forces others to play similar roles again and again.
Screen presence, probably the most important criterion for superstardom, evolves over time as the star gets more comfortable with his body language and his relationship with the camera. The Directors start figuring out what angles make the star look his best, they hire designers and star himself gets technically more aware about the techniques of talking to the camera and communicating directly with the audience.
Success breeds success and as the star achieves success, his screen presence grows. How early you discover your method and relationship with the camera determines when you would achieve success. A prime example being Saif Ali Khan, who was a natural actor but lacked the self confidence to play the lead when he came along and choice of scripts for his solo films didn’t help. It’s amazing that for someone born in a Nawabi family with mother as film actress, how someone would be so lacking the confidence in his abilities. He had to go through a long journey of self discovery before he achieved success as a leading man. Abhishek Bachchan went through the same and still seems to struggle at times. In his early films, Abhishek was awkward and not being himself. In some of the films, he was poorly copying his dad in style and mannerism.
If success breeds success, the reverse is also true; failures diminish the self confidence and the aura of the star on the screen. Again, nowhere it’s more visible than in show business. You can see what happened to Vivek Mushran or Chandrachur Singh who debuted with successful films. Vivek Oberoi is the extreme example of how not to self- destroy it. When he first came he had everything going for him, acting ability, rugged looks, a graceful dancing style (watch him in some songs in Dum and Road). and a super hit debut with a maverick director. For a while it seemed as if he could do no wrong. But not every body can digest success and Vivek clearly couldn’t. He broke up with his girl friend, hooked up with Aishwarya Rai and spoiled relationships with his co-stars. When he publically went after Salman Khan in a press interview, he lost all the goodwill in the film industry, which works like an incestuous family in many ways, fiercely protecting wrongdoing of its own clan members.
Hard work and fighting spirit never goes out of style
It takes a lot of discipline and hard work to become a superstar and even more to maintain it. Amitabh Bachchan was known for his discipline and punctuality even during 80s when coming late on the sets was common even for a B or C grade star. Aamir and Shahrukh Khan are famous for total dedication and ownership they demonstrate even for projects that are not their home production. Even Akshay Kumar is supposed to be very disciplined in his work life and so is Anil Kapoor.
Back to 90s, the three Khans were getting best of new age scripts and Ajay Devgan was taking over 80’s style action films while Sunny Deol was seeing resurgence after Ghayal. Who would care for another action hero in those days? That’s how Akshay Kumar made his debut in a totally forgettable film. He would be stuck to B and C class movies and would be compared with Suneil Shetty for a while before he figured it out. It seems somehow that people around Akshay believed in him more than he did. He clearly seemed convinced that he doesn’t have any acting muscles in him and is better off doing action roles that he was comfortable with. But still, he kept getting lead roles, even in multi-starrers. By the year 96-97 it started becoming clear that 80s style cinema is dead once and for all and the new NRI lover boy image for hero is here to stay. It took a string of flops for Akshay to realize that he needed to re-invent and reinvent he did.
It started with a couple of serious arty type films but the change finally came with Hera Pheri. This is the film where he discovered his method, his approach to camera and the mantra for most of his super hits, the comedy style. But even after Hera Pheri, it took him 8 long years to establish himself as a super star. I first noticed this hint of self assurance and super confidence in Akshay in Namaste Landon. He was totally at peace with himself, fully confident of what he is doing. In a film where Katrina plays the lead protagonist, Akshay adds that calming super star presence. After that came Bhool Bhulaiyaa, a film where he makes his appearance almost after interval. Once again, he was in the zone where you expect only a super star to be. He completely owned the scenes, looming larger than any character on screen and performing with the kind of super-confidence that only a super star can do.
Akshay is probably the unique superstar who always belonged there but took the longest route to get there.
That brings us to another common story line that makes a super star; the ability to start a bit raw, work your way up through some side hero type roles but keep honing the talent you have. That is why when media calls someone like Ranbir Kapoor a superstar, I feel like laughing at them. We have seen the scenario play out time and time again – a well prepared, well brought up star kid gets a huge launch with a big banner and big director and media goes gaga over him. Kumar Gaurav, Akshaye Khanna, Bobby Deol, Sanjay Dutt were some of the most prominent launches in Hindi film industry. Unlike Kumar Gaurav, who was unlucky, others did see some success but only after they first flopped and crashed before picking themselves up. Rule of thumb: big star kid launches do not a super star make!
Hrithik Roshan was almost an exception to this rule. He came, got launched and did conquer it all for some time. He did take it all seriously in the beginning when media called him a superstar and compared him to be the next after Shahrukh. After multiple times trying to play the NRI lover boy, an image set by Shahrukh Khan; Hrithik flopped badly and almost lost it. Remember, you do not become a super star by playing an image that someone else created and owned.
Luckily for Hrithik, the trend changed and industry directors and producers learned that public is sick of this NRI lover boy hero image. Even the big Khans started doing different types of films and started focusing on one film at a time. This approach worked for Hrithik. He always had the talent. This new trend allowed him to pick few roles which he believed in and put his heart and soul into them.
Unlimited Ambition and willingness to work for it
Back when Amitabh came out of his 5 years break and started doing films that didn’t quite do justice to his aura of a super star. People, including some of his hard core fans lynched him for it sometimes. The usual reaction was, “Why he is making a fool of himself after having such a great repertoire of work behind him”. “Why wouldn’t he stop?” everybody asked. But the people who asked these questions missed the essential point. This ability to go on, pick up again and fight again and this hunger for more, this unending ambition is what makes a super star and Amitabh Bachchan was is no exception. He wouldn’t be what he is if he stopped and said to himself, “I have achieved enough”.
We see that in another “Winner Take All” profession, sports. We have seen for so long, and sometimes take it for granted, how difficult its is what Sachin Tendulkar has done and is doing. Playing a competitive sport for 19 years, after having achieved everything he can in record books, after having seem 2-3 generations of contemporaries come and go, it’s bewildering to imagine how he motivates himself for another game of cricket.
Eventually Sachin’s body will reach it’s limitations and he would ne forced to stop. But there is no such limitation in performing arts and I can bet with you that Amitabh will go on.
It’s amazing to analyze all these stories and see how the fundamentals resemble so closely with all the lessons we learned from our parents in general about succeeding in life. We all learned as kids that we all have talents but we need to work hard and refine our talents that we need discipline and hard work in order to succeed and we need to take risks and create our own path instead of copying others.
Before, I close; I am not denying the ever present factor – Luck By Chance. No one can deny that luck is a factor in any type of success. The examples of Bachchan almost returning to Allahabad before getting the last minute offer to do Zanjeer or Shahrukh Khan getting Darr and Baazigar because Aamir and Salman Khan refused these films. But what is common across these stories is the fact that these people were able to take advantage of the opportunities that luck presented to them.
Even in our daily lives we see these fundamentals play out again and again, they are just more visible in a “Winner take all” profession like movies or sports. In our daily nine to five corporate life, where life moves much more slowly, we stiil have super stars. We begrudge them, call them politicking type, chamchas of upper management or doubt their means to achieve success. The reality is in most cases people achieve success because they worked hard for it, slogged in business schools, worked hard on projects that came their way, worked on their weaknesses, used their strengths and took risks whenever needed. And yes, they were probably lucky to be at the right place at right time and they also either knew or learned the art of marketing themselves. But that doesn’t make them any less deserving.
For some of us, it takes much longer to figure out who we are and sometimes we are too late and end up playing a second fiddle role when we consider ourselves to be the more deserving one compared to the first lead.
If you are one those, if you have done everything right, had the talent, worked hard and lead a disciplined life but are still languishing in supporting roles or character roles, look around. Look around for millions of those who are playing spot boys or extras around you, in jobs which have no growth prospects, doing work that never changes, year after year and making just enough money to get by while the starts get all the attention and all the money. Even they had ambition and dreams, were willing to work hard and do everything it takes to succeed but somehow they were destined to play spot boys or extras on the big set of life.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Wonderful article boss!!….For me Amitabh bachchan is the only superstar of indian cinema…
A Singh, I thoroghly enjoyed your artcile, although I must admit I read it in two parts.. First half and then the second half after a break! It is a little long ;)
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But I like the way you have tried to break down the super succeses in Hindi popular cinema, giving credit where it’s due. It was refreshing to not read someone siding one Khan and opposing the other. I love Shah Rukh and admire Aamir to no bounds. Salman has never been an actor for me, post HAHK and Bachchan will remain the best ever..
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Ajay Devgan, for me, is a very good limited actor. There are genres that he is clearly uncomfortable in (Read Comedy in Golmaal) but when cast well, he can create wonders (Khakee, Legend of Bhagat Singh, Zakhm..). Akshay is the perfect “Bollywood” star – he can act, dance, do comedy, do stunts and looks good. But he has definitely reached a saturation point. Unless he does something really different, he would face a rapid decline. We saw the audience’s impatience with Chandni Chowk to China..
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But thanks for writing this article! I enjoyed it!
The article was hypnotic… To a lazy reader like myself, it was tremendous to make me read it through in one go.
Informative, inspiring and compassionate.
Welcome A Singh Sahab, to having made an amazing comeback, after a low article. Oz was right when he said “Soon we will see the best of work from your keyboard”
Keep it up sir
Hats off….best ever i hv read on pfc…n i hv read almost all…keep dem coming!
A very entertaining article but why is Govinda not included in this?
Brilliant!! Bachchan is the man, the only superstar…the Constant. Kitne Khan Kapoor aur Kumar aaye aur gaye…It amuses me to see his name in best hero category year after year when most of the nominees are young, half his age. Amazing!!
what an article!!!
moving and poignant…..i dunno but i feel quiet encouraged…
For three decades, Amitabh Bachchan pulverized villains, listened to his mother and scolded God to save the world.He has impressed many genration and completly transformed shitty scripts into masterclass scene assembled together.
Hell, we could have never imagined one can be angry with God till you gave Him a piece of your mind in Deewaar.We never knew grief can be angry till you showed us in Anand.We never knew silence could be so eloquent till you showed us how in Sarkar.
For me, AB is the greatest not because of his best films but his worst.Any other hero walking into a climax with a crocodile on his back would have got booed off. When he did that in Ganga Jamuna Saraswati, the tension could have been cut by a knife.
naseer sir is absolute right in his assessment.i agree with him..
endind credits are simply flawless
truth is always bitter
Truely inspiring post. AWESOME.
@A.Singh,
[in 80’s, mediocrity was prevalent in every aspect of Indian society. Politics, economy, job scene, music and even cricket (before and after the fluke of 83 world cup), we were reaching a new low every year].
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Can’t be completely true.
Cricket- India used to follow if you cant win, try for a draw in test matches in those years but its unfair to call India’s performance as mediocre in one day matches. Rather India might have lost very few One day Matches, between a period started from winning the world cup in 1983 and semi final of Relience cup in 1987. Indian team remained a sure shot winner for four years. In between they won B&H cup also where Ravi Shashtri was awarded with champion of champions title and Indian team was making a round in Audi car, won by him. 1985 saw emergence of India’s most wristy batsman, M Azhar. Hope you can recall his first 3 matches.
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Scientifically- India witnessed, conversation between Rakesh Sharma, speaking from space, and Indira Gandhi (from earth).
Later foundation of advancement in telecommunication area was laid by team of Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda.
Term Computer had become a common term to be used by students and other educated people in the society. Students had started selecting computers also after passing the engineering entrance examnations as even state engg colleges had started Computer engg deptt also.
Politically- Period between January 1985 till starting of 1987 was seen as a wonderful period when Rajiv Gandhi had become quite successful in raising the hopes inside the people of India.
He was trying to bring peace in all he disturbed states. A political leader can start the peace process and results are found some time later but a good atmosphere was created all around.
Late 90s ate the fruits of those crops for which seeds were sown in mid 80s.
Atleast Software crowd should have this realisation about the prudent steps taken at that time.
Art: those who were creative, were able to continue creating good things. Gulzar sab did not make any mar dhad wali film in 80s and he still gave Ijazat. Wrote good lyrics for films and non filmi albums(e.g Dil Padosi Hai). DD created a space where wonderfully good TV serials could be created which left long lasting impact on people and audience still recall those high quality serials.
Yash Chopra is a live example. He made films in both the categories, good and below average, in that period. On one hand he made Mashaal (first half is good, second half is average), Chandni, Lamhe and on other hand he made Parampara and Vijay. His good films had good music and his below average films had equally average music.
Point is when he wanted to make good films, he made them.
Same is true with everybody. Those who wanted to do good works, they did, those who were weak and less creative, flew in the flow of river of average and below average and bad works.
Maruti, Amritraj Brothers and Ramesh Krishnan in Devis Cup, PT Usha, Entry of Sachin, Vishawanathan Anand (International master in mid 80s, when he as barely 15), etc etc all happened in 80s.
Project to clean the Ganga was started in 80s. People did not make it success, that is different thing but a right step was taken and envirnmental protection became a serious concern.
True, salaries were not as great as people get now a days but then desires were also less then.
Except quality of majority of hindi films, scene was not that bad in other areas of life. Now More people are killed per year than those years, (inspite of terrorism in Panjab, Aasam, etc in those years).
A gud and very informative post but toooooooooooooooooooooooooooo……. long
Thanks for all the generous comments folks!
Kaustubh, Jehan, Satya dn others. thanks for your encouraging remarks.
Abhilash, yes Govinda should’ve been included, but more as what not to do. He survived purely on talent and did everything else wrong, came late on sets, did wrong type of movies again and again.
RK sab,
Good defence of 80’s. Can’t deny anything you have listed, but relatively speaking India was not a happening place as it is today. The real recovery started after we hit rock botoom in 89-90, when we were alomst about to default on BOP, Rajiv Gandhi, hope of our generation got embrioled in corruption and later got killed.
Most of what we saw in 80’s were individual cases of heroism, examples you can always find in as large a population as India.
We can probably spend hours debating this topic.
I feel much more hopeful about India today than I did in those days and the next generation gives me a lot more hope. I find them energetic, full of dreams and ambition, not bitter about goras or colonial times and very modern and global in their outlook.
Again all of this is relatively speaking, we still have enormous problems and are way behind Chinese but I am more hopeful than when I was in collegae.
In the 80’s, Malayalam Film industry was at its best and what was done then in Kerala is yet to be reached even in the current modern bollywood. But then, I forget that Kerala is not part of India, atleast that part of India which Bollywood recognises.
very good one..
Mr. A. Singh has written this article with a point of view to highlight Amitabh’s career in an exaggarated manner. He himself admitted that Amitabh ruined the film standard. Yes, he did it. Further, he mentioned that the original superstar Rajesh Khanna also performed in sub standard action oriented films in 80s. Mr. Singh should learn that the Original Superstar performed only 5% films of Hum Dono category, otherwise in 80s it is the impact of the one and only original Superstar who alone performed in Solo hero films during multistar era and gave us gems like Avataar, Amrit, Babu, Amar Deep, Thodi Si Bewafai, Akhir KYon, Anokha Rishta, Dard, Anurodh type all time classic. So in future Mr.Singh should refrain himself to write such a biased article towards support of the most cheap entertainer of indian cinema.