5 Superstars Whose Debut Was Disastrous

Slow and steady always wins the race. Nowhere is this  truer than in showbiz where the ones who have endured are  the ones  who have  made their way up  gradually whereas  the ones who had a meteoric rise tend to get left behind.

Does anyone  remember Kumar Gaurav whose  debut film  Love Story  broke records?

1. Amitabh  Bachchan:  Except for  a few hawk-eyed critics who saw his dormant  potential ,   he went unnoticed as one  of the seven protagonists in  K A Abbas’  Saat Hindustani in 1969. Except  for  Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand  which was an out-and-out Rajesh Khanna  vehicle AB had only  flops until  Zanjeer  in  1973.  If Zanjeer  had  not worked   AB would have quit acting and gone back to his 10-5  job in Kolkata.Zanjeer was  first offered  to Dev Anand and then  Raj Kumar. They  both  turned it down since the hero had no songs to sing.
2. Rajesh Khanna:  He  was  first seen   in  Chetan Anand ‘s Aakhri Khat  in 1966, then  two more flops  Aurat and Raaz. He gave a  stellar  performance as   a jobless  youth in  Baharon Ke Sapne. But this  film too  flopped.  Everything changed  overnight after the  release  of Shakti Samanta’s Aradhana  in 1969. Thereafter the  hits just flowed like toothpaste  from an uncapped  tube.His co-star Sharmila Tagore recalls  the  ferocious hero-worship  that she witnessed first hand. It was something she never saw again.
3. Hema Malini: With  due respects to Sridevi   India’s first  female superstar was  Hema Malini. Her track-record still remains unequalled.And  to think she started with a  thundering  flop in Sapnon Ka Saudagar  in 1968   which launched her  as India’s  Dream Girl.  Her  pairing with the aging Raj kapoor  who was pushing  40 while she  was  17 proved disastrous. Hema confessed  to me that Sapnon Ka  Saudagar could have  killed her  career. But  you  know what they say , what doesn’t kill you only makes  you stronger.
4. Sridevi:  Himmatwala was  not Sridevi’s Hindi debut. Earlier  in 1989  she was launched with  some fanfare  in  Solva Savan a horribly botched-up  remake  of   Bharathiraja’s Tamil film 16 Vayathinile,with Amol Palekar doing a terrible  impersonation of  Kamal Haasan. Understandably  it flopped. If it wasn’t Jeetendra and  director K Raghvendra Rao  in Himmatwala her career would have  sunk without a trace.Interestingly Rekha was  the first choice  for  Himmatwala. But she didn’t have the dates.Daane daane par  lika hai khane wale ka naam.
5. Ranbir Kapoor: Saawariya  a magnificent  opera on celluloid was  a huge  flop. But   its debutant hero  Ranbir Kapoor  suffered  none the worse  for it. His career took off  in spite of  the setback. Even his father Rishi Kapoor hated Saawariya andRanbir  never worked with  his mentor Sanjay Bhansali again.  But according to me  Ranbir  never gave  a better performance than he  did in Saawariya, certainly not in that overrated pretentious  punk take on Devdas in Rockstar.