Other stars were jealous of Shatrughan Sinha

In the 1970s, multi-starrer films were the norm and Shatrughan Sinha came to be known as the actor who would walk away with all the applause while working with other heroes. In a recent chat, he said that other stars were jealous of him, but since they couldn’t find any reasons to not work with him, they would say that he is never on time, so he shouldn’t be cast. He, however, didn’t name anyone.

“A lot of stars would find excuses. They were jealous. They couldn’t find anything to say against me because they couldn’t have said that he walks away with the applause, so instead, they would say that someone else should be cast because he is never on time,” Shatrughan shared with Arbaaz Khan on ‘The Invincibles’. As Sinha narrated this story, he also spoke about how he got cast in Yash Chopra’s ‘Kaala Patthar’ as many actors from the cast ‘did not want him in the film’. The film starred Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Neetu Kapoor and others.

Sinha added that Salim and Javed, who were the writers of the film, wrote the part of Mangal Singh with him in mind and insisted that Chopra cast Sinha: “Yash Chopra was in a dilemma. A lot of his actors did not want me to do the film.” Sinha shared that when the director came to meet him, he spoke about punctuality and discipline before he spoke about the film, which irked the ‘Kalicharan’ star. “Itna bada established star tha main,” he said.

Shatrughan recalled that soon after this meeting, Salim Khan, of the Salim-Javed duo, came to see him: “He made me promise that no matter what happens, don’t leave this film, this will be a game-changer for you.” He further recalled Salim’s words and said, “They will try that you don’t do this film for some or the other reason - for money, punctuality, dates, cooperation. No matter what they say, you must agree with them. You don’t give them a chance. This will be a cult film and people will always remember you’. I give a lot of credit for ‘Kaala Patthar’ to Salim saab.”