Career of Amjad Khan

Before Amjad came to films he was a theatre actor. His first film was as a child artist at the age of 17 in the film Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957). He had assisted K. Asif in the film Love and God in the late 1960s and had also made a brief appearance in the film which would have been his official film debut. But the film was left incomplete after K. Asif's death in 1971 and it ended up releasing in 1986. In 1973 he made his debut in Hindustan Ki Kasam.

In 1975 he was offered the role of a dacoit Gabbar Singh for the film Sholay (meaning flames) by Salim who was one of the film's writers. For his preparation for the role Amjad read Abhishapth Chambal, a book on Chambal dacoits written by Taroon Kumar Bhaduri (actress Jaya Bhaduri's father). Amjad shot to stardom with the movie. His portrayal of Gabbar Singh is considered by many to be the first depiction of pure evil on the screen in Indian Cinema; a totally evil character who doesn't make excuses for its evil. "Arre O' Sambha, Kitne Aadmi The"— is one of the most popular line of Bollywood mouthed.

The movie Sholay is one of the all-time blockbuster movies in India and one of the highest earners, and although the movie had a cast of superstars including Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra the most memorable character was considered to be that of Gabbar Singh. Amjad Khan later appeared in advertisements as Gabbar Singh endorsing Parle-G biscuits, and it was the first incidence of a villain being used to sell a popular product.

After the success of Sholay Khan continued to play villain roles in many subsequent Hindi films in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s - superseding, in terms of popularity and demand, the earlier Indian actor, Ajit - portraying more sophisticated and urbane criminal bosses, mastermind of bank robberies, murders and conspiracies to seize power. He often acted as villain opposite Amitabh Bachchan as the hero.

Khan was also acclaimed for playing many other unconventional roles. In the critically acclaimed film Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977), directed by Satyajit Ray, Khan played the helpless and deluded monarch Wajid Ali Shah, whose kingdom, Avadh, is being targeted by British colonialists from the British East India Company. It is the only movie in which he dubbed song. He played a positive role opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Yaarana (1981) where he played Bachchan's character's best friend and in Laawaris as Amitabh's father. In the art film Utsav (1984), he portrayed Vatsayana, the author of the Kama Sutra. In 1988 he appeared in the Merchant-Ivory English film The Perfect Murder as an underworld don. He also excelled at playing comical characters in films such as Qurbani (1980), Love Story, and Chameli Ki Shaadi (1986). In 1991, he reprised his role as Gabbar Singh in Ramgarh Ke Sholay, a parody of the legendary film which also included look-alikes of Amitabh Bachchan and Dev Anand.

He also ventured into directing for a brief period in the 1980s directing and also starring in Chor Police (1983) and Ameer Aadmi Gareeb Aadmi (1985) but both films failed to do well at the box office.

Amjad was also the President of the Actors Guild association. As mentioned earlier, he had been a leader in college and was respected in the film industry too. He would intervene and negotiate disputes between actors and directors/producers. There was one such dispute in which Dimple Kapadia had agreed to play a role of a mother in a movie and later backed down. The entire film producer community tried to boycott her. Amjad did intervene on behalf of the Actors Guild.