STARS AND STYLE

The two biggest ever stars of Indian movies have followed contrasting styles as brands

- AKSHARA SRIVASTAVA

When Sattam Oru Iruttarai (literal translation: the law is a dark room), a 1981 Tamil film, was being remade as Andhaa Kanoon, the first choice to play the vigilante protagonist was Mithun Chakraborty. Chakraborty had emerged as a big and bankable actor who could do action and dance with equal ease.

But, it seems, Amitabh Bachchan, at the peak of his stardom at that time, suggested Rajinikanth for the role and himself offered to play a cameo.

"Amitabh Bachchan suggested my name and promised to do the guest role if they cast me. That's how I landed that role," media reports quoted Rajinikanth as saying at the audio launch of Vettaiyan, his latest outing with Bachchan, which released last month and has reportedly collected more than ₹250 crore worldwide in its first 22 days.

The scale of the movie business has changed drastically. Andhaa Kanoon earned a fraction of Vettaiyan's haul (Wikipedia puts AK's collection at ₹5 crore) and was still considered a big hit, the fifth most successful Hindi film of 1983. And that is not the only thing that has changed.

Both Bachchan and Rajinikanth are - to paraphrase a 1968 Hollywood movie title - lions in winter. And the contrast they present as brands should be a subject of case studies (it probably is already).

Different paths

Bachchan and Rajinikanth went on to star in two more movies in the 10 years after Andhaa Kanoon: Geraftaar in 1985 and Hum in 1991. But they were already on very different paths as actors.

Around the time Hum came, Bachchan was struggling to sustain his sway at the box office. His recent trail included duds such as Toofan and Jaadugar, both in 1989, and Ajooba (1990), with only Agneepath (1990) being a somewhat brighter spot.