How and when Rajesh Khanna failed to cope up with downfall- Prem Chopra

Prem Chopra speaks his mind on the falling career time period of Rajesh Khanna.

Bollywood artist Prem Chopra is a famous antagonist from the 90s of the Hindi film industry. He managed to impress the audience with his unparalleled acting skills and negative characters. He served the audience with his astonishing acting capabilities for more than 60 years from 1960 to 2021. The audience of the Bollywood film industry always loved to hate him for his onscreen cruelty and endless brutal behaviour.

Since his entry into the industry, this artist enjoyed sharing screen space with most of the stars of the country. He also worked opposite the first superstar of the nation, Rajesh Khanna in 19 narratives in the Hindi language. Manoj Kumar’s Upkar would be the 20th one had the actor continued to work on the project.

In every film, the Do Raaste villain masterfully embraced the role of the story’s antagonist in every project of his career. During his collaboration with Amar Prem lead, he forged a deep friendship with the iconic Superstar Rajesh Khanna. With keen interest as a fan, he closely observed the resounding triumphs of the nation’s first superstar. Rajesh Ji achieved an unprecedented win by delivering 15 consecutive hits from 1969 to 1971 in a row.

Baring his soul, the actor also revealed that during the peak period of the Swarg film actor’s career. Producers of the industry would eagerly queue up, to grab the opportunity to sign him for their movies. Obviously, he was the first superstar to achieve stardom to that extreme.

But, speaking his heart out, Prem Chopra boldly admitted that the industry had misconstrued his true nature as a human being. Delving deeper into his thoughts, he also said that he found Mr Rajesh Khanna as an immensely emotional individual. As a good companion or friend, he also acknowledged that the Maryada star. He also said that the star even had his fair share of personal struggles best known to him only.

Choosing not to delve into the specific challenges faced by the esteemed actor of “Kati Patang,” he continued to express his belief that the actor struggled to cope with the dwindling glory of his stardom. It is not easy to face it, especially after that huge success in line.

Actually, this industry depends more upon adjustments and if an artist is not ready to adjust then the situation becomes more unfit for the artist himself. Prem Chopra ji also said that his fellow artist from Mere Jeevan Sathi had the same kind of issues. Once his movies as a lead stopped working on the ticket window he was offered some supporting roles.

But he was frustrated rather than coping with the circumstances. Time demanded an adjustment of an artist but he struggled to accept the situation.

Even for the 1967 release Upkar, the actor was offered a strong supporting role. He even accepted it. But just one day before the start of the shoot when his costumes as well were ready, he backed off from the project citing issues with other producers for this role in Manoj Kumar’s Upkar. Manoj Kumar was left in shock as he was making that movie when he realized that Rajesh Khanna is walking out of the project.

Prem Nagar actor also explained that the main reason for his walkout stating that the other producers in the industry were doubtful of him playing a lead role after taking up an assignment with a side role. Hence, they kind of warned him to stick to a no else they won’t hire him as the main lead in future. This situation made the Dushman actor bid goodbye to a good project.

On the other hand, Upkar made Prem Chopra a strong villain in the industry who continued to grab more antagonist roles after that in his acting career. Also, the Keemat antagonist said that in a similar situation, their other fellow Amitabh Bachchan did not get fussy.

And he compromised as a supporting actor in many movies when he shifted from the main lead to the supporting category. To date, the actor performs the strongest roles in the supporting category of best Hindi movies.

Prem Chopra further added that superstar Rajesh Khanna was also very irritated with the downfall in his career. And he couldn’t cope with this falling career after receiving extreme stardom in his life.

We agree with Upkar’s antagonist at this point that success and failure are two sides of the same coin. And in all fields, one has to face the boat it does not matter what we see first. But a person who wants to get exposed to success must consider failure as an option in life as well.

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