10 Superstars Who Have Taken The Backseat

It Takes  A Superstar As Generous As Shah Rukh To Let The Leading Lady Take Centestage in Dear Zindagi .But He Isn’t The Only One…

Presenting 10 Superstars Who Have Taken The Backseat.

1. Rajesh Khanna in Amar Prem: At the peak  of his superstardom when all the world was his stage, Rajesh Khanna agreed to  play second fiddle to Sharmila Tagore in ShaktiSamanta’s immortal love story. In fact so sure was Samanta that the superstar won’t do a heroine-oriented film at that juncture of his career that he  didn’t even offer the film to Khanna.Amar Prem was first offered to Raj Kumar. It was the superstar who volunteered to play the lead in a film where he had to share the limelight with a 7-year old boy Nandu(Master Bobby).
2. Salman Khan in  Phir Milenge: When Tamil star Revathi decided to direct a Hindi film about a girl who is ostracized at her workplace for having contracted AIDS, Salmangenerously stepped into play a secondary  role (as an HIV infected ) only because the cause was bigger than his stardom. Bravo.
3. Salman Khan In  Khamoshi: The Musical: When Sanjay Leela Bhansali turned director he went to his friend Salman Khan for support. Salman agreed to play the lead  only because he knew that Khamoshi: The Musical was out and out Manisha Koirala’s film,a female-oriented subject . The male lead was what Vinod Mehra used to play in the 1980s. If it wasn’t for Salman what would  SLB have done?
4. Sanjeev Kumar in Aandhi: When his best-buddy Gulzar offered this film to his ‘Haribhai’ the actor par excellence grumbled goodnaturedly, ‘This is Suchitra Sen’s film through and through.What will I do in it? Tu mera dost hai ya dushman?’ But that was just a budy tantrum.Sanjeev took up the challenge and won the Filmfare award for best actor.
5. Irrfan Khan in Piku: Deepika Padukone played the title role in this father-daughter film .And no Irrfan didn’t play Deepika’s father. The Big B did.He played  the guy who drove the  father-daughter to Kolkata while they drove him around the bend. The way Irrfancreated eloquent space for himself in the narrative  is the hallmark of a truly great actor.
6. Amitabh Bachchan In Pink: The relentless focus here was on the three female protagonists as they battled sexual violation. The Big B quietly took the backseat for the cause,fighting the women’s battle in the court,proving that a true superstar is one who knows when to step back for the larger good.
7. Aamir Khan in  Rangeela: This was a film designer-structured to  turn UrmilaMatondkar into an overnight star. Yet  Aamir Khan stepped in and power packed a performance as  astreetwise tapori that many including me regard as Aamir’s career’s best.
8. Rajnikanth , Sunny Deol in Chaalbaaz: Sridevi in a double roles and the two superstars cast as her romantic interests? Quite  a  reversal  of  gender rules in Bollywood . What’s more both the Thalaiyva and  Sunny Paaji had a ball wooing Sri as she held centretage.
9. Shah Rukh Khan in Dear Zindagi: He enters the plot 40 minutes after the film begins and then he just listens to Alia Bhatt spill her innermost secrets. For King Khan this is quite a departure from his I-me-myself roles.And he simply takes over the role without taking over the plot.
10. Akshay Kumar in Naam Shabana: Gender-bender in a blender….In Neeraj Pandey’s Baby Akshay Kumar held centrstage while Tapsee Pannu made a cameo appearance as an intelligence officer out to nab a terrorist. Now  a whole film on Tapsee’s character  in Babyis being made and Akshay has sportingly put in a cameo appearance. The age of chivalry is not dead yet.