Amitabh Bachchan Questioned Jaya Bachchan When She Hesitated To Sign Zanjeer: 'I Believe You Are...'

Zanjeer is a special film for Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. The 1973 Amitabh and Jaya-led film’s success led to the couple’s wedding. While their jodi in the film was much loved, Jaya once confessed that she was hesitant to do the film. In a piece she wrote in 2012, Jaya revealed that Salim-Javed offered the film to Jaya but she was unsure if she wants to do it due to her limited role time. However, when Amitabh questioned her hestitant, she shrugged off her doubts and agreed to do the film.

“Whenever I look back on our marriage, I cannot help feeling that the months and days sped by swiftly.Zanjeerhad been released in May and by June 4, we were man and wife. Actually several heroines had turned downZanjeer. Salim-Javed had asked me to step in. I had been hesitant since there was not much of a role for me,” Jaya Bachchan wrote in the 2012 piece for India Today.

“That is when Amit told me quietly, ‘I believe you are refusing to act with me.’ I relented and accepted. If it had been any other actor, I would not have done Zanjeer. Frankly it was an excuse to be with him and if my participation helped the project, so be it,” she added.

“He brought about a semblance of order in my uneven, self-absorbed way of functioning. Before that I had been fiercely independent. I had total faith in him as an actor and as a man whom I loved. He was the only man in the world I wanted to listen to. He made me feel wonderful and complete. I wanted to be with him, through thick and thin, and that is how circumstances willed it to be,” Jaya said.

It has been 51 years since the incident and their marriage. Jaya picked only a few projects after their marriage. She had worked in films such as Abhimaan (1973), Mili (1975), Chupke Chupke (1975) and Sholay (1975) after their wedding.

She then took a long break after Shweta Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan were born. Her last project at the time was Silsila (1981) with Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha. She then made a comeback in 1998 with Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa and did a few films thereon. Her last release was Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani in 2023.