Dharmendra takes a dig at Javed Akhtar’s claim that he refused Amitabh Bachchan’s Zanjeer

Lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar seems to have stirred up a hornet’s nest. In a recent interview to mark actor Amitabh Bachchan’s 80th birthday yesterday, he said that instead of Big B, actor Dharmendra was the first choice for the film, Zanjeer (1973). And it seems this hasn’t gone down well with the Apne (2007) actor.

Akhtar claimed Dharmendra, 86, turned down the role, among other actors. “Amitabh Bachchan was actually the last choice for Zanjeer. The script was written for Dharmendra ji, but for some reason, he refused to work on it. Prakash Mehra (the director of the film) had a script, but no leading man. He went from actor to actor to offer the role. Everybody refused to do the film,” Akhtar, 77, told India Today.

He added that many actors turned down the film as it had “no romance angle or comedy” and the lead character “was supposed to be a very grim, serious, bitter person”.

When HT City tweeted about the lyricist’s comments, Dharmendra replied, “Javed, kaise ho……. dikhave ki iss duniya mein haqeeqaten dabi rah jaati hain. jeetey raho….. Dilon ko gudgudana khoob aata hai….. kaash sar chad ke bolne ka jaadu bhi sekh liya hota….. (sic).”

Social media users soon got busy, trying to decipher what the veteran actor meant by the tweet.

We tried contacting Dharmendra and Akhtar, but neither of them responded till the time of going to press.