Zanzeer: the musical chairs for the casting of hero before entry of Amitabh Bachchan 


Dev Anand', Dharmendra and Raaj Kumar were approached by Prakash Mehra before Amitabh's casting for Zanzeer 


By Rajesh Ahuja 


That Amitabh Bachchan was not the original choice for hero of Prakash Mehra's Zanzeer is well known. 


But not many are aware that the casting of the leading man for the action thriller went through a long  musical chairs before Amitabh Bachchan was finally cast for the film,  which catapulted him as the new superstar of the Hindi film industry. 


Prakash Mehra's Zanzeer went through a long musical chairs for casting of hero before entry of Amitabh Bachchan in the film 




The first actor to be approached for the role of hero in Zanzeer was Dharmendra. 


According to the biography of legendary actor Pran,  the story of Zanzeer had been bought by Dharmendra, who was to be its leading man, and he had reached an agreement with Prakash Mehra,  who would direct the film. 


Prakash Mehra, by virtue of a verbal commitment made earlier,  was bound by an understanding with Dharmendra. 


Talking about it,  Prakash Mehra said, 'he(Dharmendra) and I were partners. The story had been brought by Dharmendra, who was to be the leading man of the film ' 


However, Dharmendra had other commitments and so their (Dharmendra and Prakash Mehra) partnership was dissolved. However,  Dharmendra let Prakash Mehra use that story. 


The next actor to be approached for the leading hero of Zanzeer was the debonair star Dev Anand. 


When Prakash Mehra mentioned that he was considering Dev Anand for the hero's role in Zanzeer,  both Salim and Javed (the scriptwriter of Zanzeer) felt that it would be a case of 'total miscasting'. 


(Pran recommended Dev Anand to Prakash Mehra as hero for Zanzeer 

https://raju0568.blogspot.com/2025/01/recommended-dev-anand-to-prakash-mehra.html)



Speaking in the biography,  Prakash Mehra said that he had paid three visits to Dev Anand to narrate the script of Zanzeer 


'I had already paid three visits to Dev Anand and narrated the script to him. Then Dev Anand mentioned that he should be given two to three songs to sing in the film.  I said 'no Dev Saab,  this character will not be singing.  This is not that kind of character.,'Prakash Mehra said. 


Then Dev Anand offered to produce the film under the Nav Ketan banner , with Prakash Mehra as director., an offer turned down by the director. 


'Dev Saab immediately said, 'Allright Prakash, you do one thing. This is a beautiful subject.  You give it to me.  I will make it in Nav Ketan. And you direct it- and I will give you whatever money you want. 


I laughed and said 'Dev Saab,  I have come to give you work.  And now you are offering to give me work.  We both laughed and parted as friends, 'Prakash Mehra recalled about his meeting with Dev Anand. 


The third actor to be approached by Prakash Mehra was Raaj Kumar. 


According to Prakash Mehra, 'the story of Zanzeer was then narrated to Raaj Kumar who in his usual style, said,'jaani, this is my kind of story.  I was once an inspector in Mahim. But for this film, you do the shooting in Madras. ' 


When Prakash Mehra explained that the story's setting was in Bombay and that it would be impossible to shoot a film like that in Madras,  Raaj Kumar also declined to do the film. 


Even as Prakash Mehra was perplexed and annoyed at the seemingly 'unending' search for the leading man for Zanzeer,  Pran's younger son Sunil suggested the name of Amitabh Bachchan,  then an upcoming star, for the role. 


Sunil was working in Madras and staying with Ajitabh Bachchan,  the younger brother of Amitabh Bachchan.  When he heard that Prakash Mehra was looking for a hero for Zanzeer, he told Pran, 'Dad , I have a friend who is in films. Though his recent films have flopped,  he is real good. '


Amitabh Bachchan, who had started his career with K A Abbas's 'Saat Hindustani'(1969), had an excellent cameo in Sunil Dutt's 'Reshma Aur Shera'(1971). His recent film , Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 'Anand'(1970) was a hit. 


Pran asked Prakash Mehra to go and watch Amitabh Bachchan's latest film 'Bombay To Goa'. 


So, Prakash Mehra and Javed Akhtar went to watch 'Bombay to Goa'. There is a particular sequence in the film,  which is a fight sequence. 


Talking about the episode,  Prakash Mehra said, 'even as the film was unfolding,  we came to that fight scene of Amitabh Bachchan with Shatrughan Sinha in a restaurant.  That was enough for us to decide and select the hero. Watching the sequence,  Prakash Mehra screamed 'Mil Gaya'(I found him) . Without watching the rest of the film we came out of the theatre and I said to Javed 'we have found our hero' 


Amitabh Bachchan, who made his Hindi film debut in Khwaja Ahmed Abbas's 'Saat Hindustani', starred in several box office failures like 'Parwana', Reshma Aur Shera', 'Ek Nazar', 'Raste Ka Pathar' , 'Sanjog' and Guddi', till Prakash Mehra's Zanzeer skyrocketed him to fame as the new 'angry young man ' of Bollywood. 



However,  Zanzeer, which was written by the legendary screenplay writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, was turned down by several actors as it went against the "romantic hero" image dominant in the industry at the time.


Also Read 


When Pran charged just one rupee from Raj Kapoor for Bobby 



Pran and Dev Anand: a lucky combination in Bollywood 












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