Circa 1975: the man who walked with deadly music playing in the backdrop as his boots made a menacing sound as he treaded the ravines, Gabbar Singh, is the most iconic of villains in Bollywood.
Amjad Khan stepped into the shoes of the villain after Danny played truant.
The producers wanted Danny Denzongpa to play the bandit chief, but he was committed to Feroz Khan's ‘Dharmatma’. Sanjeev Kumar wanted to play Gabbar Singh, but the producers insisted that he play the police officer.
Dharmendra was interested in playing Gabbar Singh, but changed his mind when Ramesh Sippy told him Basanti was to be played by Hema Malini. Amjad Khan was a second choice, but was chosen since the shoot as to begin in a month and director Ramesh Sippy was distraught.
Amitabh Bachchan wanted to play Gabbar, the most decorated villian.
Amjad Khan made Gabbar Singh a rustic villain, but the most menacing of them all till date. He was the best bad man one had ever seen in Bollywood. Dr Dang, Mogambo, Shakaal and others followed, but none could replicate the ferocity of Gabbar Singh.
Today the concept of the villain has changed. They call themselves anti-heroes because the leading men play those roles.
Shah Rukh Khan played the bad man in ‘Darr’, ‘Baazigar’ and ‘Anjaam’ and had a certain style to it. The Dhoom series had John Abaraham and Hrithik Roshan play the baddie and now the role has been taken over by none other than Aamir Khan. But then the Dhoom baddies are all about style and glorify thefts.
John Abraham had played the role in ‘Dhoom’ and now he has returned as the vengeful Armaan Malik taking on the Armaani suits of Saif Ali Khan in ‘Race 2’. The heroes have turned villains with around 50 shades of grey.
Abbas Mustan preferred to called John as the “second hero of the film and not the villain.” Abraham, who prefers to show off some well-built muscles by Vinod Channa in ‘Shootout At Wadala’, where he plays a gangster says that the film will be a “turning point for me and people will start saying, it’s good to be bad when they see the Bollywood bad man,” boasts Abraham. “This is will be the first shirtless don,” says the director Sanjay Gupta.
Akshay Kumar will be at his evil vest... or make that best in ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Again’ and Salman Khan may go over the top with another topless show in ‘Mr India 2’, as Mogambo if he plays the role.
Aamir Khan is also replicating the Abraham effort as the ‘Dhoom’ franchise’s latest villain. Aamir is making up for lost ground for a film he refused 21 years ago when he refused the SRK role in ‘Darr’ with the Yash Chopra camp.
“If I can make even bad look so good, what could be evil in that?” said SRK who played Rahul Mehra in ‘Darr’ and set the trend for the good men to go bad!
The Amrish Puris and Gulshan Grovers of Bollywood need a new job for sure.
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