Amitabh Bachchan's Zanjeer turns 51, did you the Dharmendra connection?

Amitabh Bachchan's Zanjeer, a cult Bollywood film turns 51. Did you star Dharmendra's connection with the film?

Bollywood cult classic film Zanjeer turns 51 and it is one of the most iconic films ever. This film gave Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan a tag of 'angry young man'. This film also helped in shaping Big B's career in the industry.

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Film historian Dilip Thakur shared interesting details about the casting process for Zanjeer. He revealed that before Prakash Mehra finalized Amitabh Bachchan for playing the lead role in Zanjeer, screenwriting duo Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan approached several stars for the role.

Here's a video of Amitabh Bachchan at Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar award ceremony below:

Well, in an interview with ETimes, Thakur shared that Prakash earlier considered Dharmendra to play the role, but faced scheduling conflicts. Later, Jaya Bhaduri suggested Amitabh's name for the role. The makers also approached Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Dev Anand and other stars for the film.

Zanjeer changed Big B's career graph and gave fans its new angry young man. Zanjeer has been forever tagged as a cult film of Hindi cinema.