When Rajesh Khanna argued with a director to kill his character in Amitabh Bachchan's film

December 29 marks the 81st birth anniversary of legendary Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna. In the late 60s and early 70s, Khanna ushered in a new era of stardom as he delivered 15 back to back hits at the box office. However, the star's decline from stardom was as meteoric and steep as his rise a few years ago.

Namak Haraam told the story of friends on opposing ideological grounds

In 1973, Rajesh Khanna was working in as many as 10 films at a time. One of them was Namak Haraam. It was being directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, with whom Khanna had delivered handful of memorable films earlier, like Anand and Bawarchi. Namak Haraam told the story of two friends Vicky (Amitabh Bachchan) and Somu (Rajesh Khanna) who are very close despite their differing social status. However, what starts as a ploy to help Vicky in his business eventually leads to an ideological war between two friends. However, there was one element where Rajesh Khanna and Hrishikesh Mukherjee had a major disagreement. 

In Anand, as well as in another of his films Safar, Rajesh Khanna’s character in the film dies in the end. Both of these films were huge hits at the box office. So Rajesh Khanna was very insistent that his character die in this film as well, in the hopes that the history of Anand and Safar could be repeated.

Reportedly, Amitabh Bachchan too wanted his character Vicky to die in the end. And this left the director Hrishikesh Mukherjee in a fix. However, Mukherjee deemed it more suitable for his film that Somu’s character dies and Vicky’s character lives with the guilt. 

And yet, even though things went according to Khanna’s demands, everything did not end well for the actor. Why?

Rajesh Khanna’s stardom wasn’t the same after Namak Haraam

In an interview years later, Rajesh Khanna recalled admitting at the film’s premiere that despite Somu being the protagonist, it was Vicky’s character and Bachchan’s character that would steal all the limelight.

What Khanna didn’t anticipate, however, that his own stardom in the following years would see a rapid decline. After Namak Haraam, Khanna struggled to deliver hits of similar magnitude like Aradhana or Kati Patang. Co-incidentally, these were the same years when Bachchan rose from a struggling box office star to the most credible star of Hindi cinema, with films like Sholay, Deewaar and Amar Akbar Anthony.

And just like Rajesh Khanna’s character in the film, Namak Haraam also marked the beginning of an end - the end of Rajesh Khanna’s invincible box office status and the rise of a new star who would define the mainstream cinema for the next many years.