Mrityudaata, starring Amitabh Bachchan, celebrates its 25th anniversary on Monday. Big B once said that Jaya Bachchan had stormed out of the film’s premiere. The crowd and reviewers both panned the picture.
Amitabh Bachchan is the most successful actor in Indian film history, and although he is recognized for classics like Sholay and Deewar, as well as modern-day successes like Piku and Paa, he had a slump in his career in the 1990s. Bachchan had a succession of failures during this period, prompting many to assume that his career was ended.
Amitabh Bachchan had a successful return in 2000 with the television program Kaun Banega Crorepati (which will shortly begin its 14th season) and Yash Chopra produced Mohabbatein, but in the 1990s, a couple of his film selections were not well received by his fans or even his family. And one among them was Mehul Kumar’s 1997 film Mrityudaata.
Mrityudaata was a major setback in Big B’s career at the time, and the film failed at the box office. The picture didn’t simply suffer due to the date; it was also less than ordinary So much so that even Jaya Bachchan walked out of the film’s premiere. Amitabh had claimed in a 1999 interview with Vir Sanghvi that Jaya was a tough critic of his work, and when asked whether she sat through screenings of his films, Amitabh said, “She didn’t sit through Mrityudaata.”
In the same interview, Amitabh discussed the financial difficulty that his production company, ABCL, was experiencing at the moment. The Runway 34 actor claimed that whatever films and sponsorships he was doing at the time were all a ploy for the corporation to acquire cash. A brand and an actor, they felt, might bring money back into the business. It went into the corporation whether it was for BPL, Pepsi, or anything else. “I didn’t get any money.”
Many questioned his film selections after Mrityudaata’s failure, but his brilliance was never called into question. After all, he was still remembered as the force that, in the 1970s, transformed fame with his ‘angry young man’ character. Film director Rajkumar Santoshi, whose credits include Ghayal, Damini, and Ghatak, believes Bachchan’s ability is being underutilized. In 1997, he told India Today, “Amitji still thrills me as an actor.” Unfortunately, he has chosen to work with commercial filmmakers rather than serious ones, therefore his full talent remains untapped.”
“Now he needs to transcend beyond commercial elements,” said the man who helped make Big B a legend twice over, Yash Chopra, who previously made Bachchan the star he was with films like Deewar and Kabhi Kabhie. He must create a film, not a proposition. He should play a mature amorous and emotional character.” Chopra took a major risk on the actor a few years later, casting him in Mohabbatein.
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