Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh Bachchan worked on many films on screen in the 70s, but behind the scenes nothing was right between the two. In Shatrughan Sinha’s biography ‘Anything But Khamosh’, the actor revealed that he had actually returned the signing amount of many films due to Amitabh Bachchan. Shatrughan wrote in the book, the problem was what I got for my performance. Amitabh could see the response he was getting. That’s why he didn’t want me to be a part of his movies. He recalled that during the movie ‘Kala Patthar’ which was one of the best films of his career at the time, there was a lot of tension between the two.
According to the book, Shatrughan Sinha would be given a chair next to Amitabh on the sets of the movie ‘Kala Patthar’, but the two did not sit together. Not only this, we used to go from the same place to the same hotel, but he used to sit in his car, he never said, let’s go together. I found all of this very strange and wondered why this was happening since I never held a grudge against him.
He also told about a fight scene where Shatrughan was told that it would be a fight between two friends, but the scene changed during filming. Shatrughan said that until Shashi Kapoor separated him, Amitabh kept hitting him. After this, the shooting stopped for 3-4 hours, which made Bachchan feel even more upset. People say that Amitabh and I made a wonderful match on screen, but if he didn’t want to work with me, if he thought Shatrughan Sinha was overwhelming in Naseeb, Shaan, Dostana or Kaala Patthar, I wasn’t impressed. There were so many movies that I left out and paid back the signing fee. There was a movie called Patthar Ke Log, one by Prakash Mehra, another by Salim-Javed, I had left so many movies without looking back for Amitabh Bachchan.
When Shatrughan Sinha was asked, “Do people say that Zeenat Aman or Rekha also contributed a bit to the breakup?” He then said that during ‘Kala Patthar’ he was visited by a heroine who was known to be very friendly with him. She used to come during the movie ‘Dostana’ too, but never once did she take it out and she didn’t introduce her to any of us. Everyone in show business knew who was going to meet whom. The media will know right away if Reena is in my makeup room or not. Such things can never be hidden in our world.
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