The Man Who Directed 5 Superstars

Dinesh Raheja charts the highs and lows of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's creative association with five megastars -- Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dharmendra.

- 

Five megastars — Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dharmendra — had one thing in common: They held Director Hrishikesh Mukherji in high regard.

Each of the five actors have collaborated memorably with the filmmaker, often stepping out of their starry ways and making special concessions to accommodate his critically acclaimed middle-of-the-road films.

Amitabh Bachchan-Hrishikesh Mukherji

Amitabh Bachchan has done the most movies with two directors, Hrishikesh Mukherji and Manmohan Desai. He did as many as eight films with both.

In fact, the actor first came into prominence thanks to Mukherji’s Anand (1971). Amitabh played second lead to Rajesh Khanna who had the more prominent title role as the dying man who spreads life-affirming positivity.

But Amitabh shot to fame as Babu Moshai, the brooding, emotionally barricaded friend whose life is transformed by Anand.

Sure, Amitabh became a huge star with Zanjeer in 1973 but Mukherji played a major role in establishing his acting credentials as an actor with the twin successes of Namak Haram and Abhimaan, both of which released that same year.

Mukherji is the only filmmaker to have pitted two superstars, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, together on screen. Twice at that. In Namak Haram, though Khanna had the sympathy-cornering death sequence, many felt that Bachchan had stolen a march over his senior.

Since Amitabh's wife Jaya too had debuted in Hindi films with Mukherji's Guddi, the close friends formed a clique.