| 4 | 6 | Bengali-Hindi actor. Major hits B. Subhash’s Disco Dancer and Dance Dance earned him a major following in India and abroad, esp. in the USSR. Early work in realist ‘political’ films, e.g. Mrigaya, The Naxalites and Hum Paanch. Later achieved a brand image with gangland thrillers, indigenous Westerns and love stories for mid-level producers like Raveekant Nagaich, offering cheaper variants of what Bachchan was doing in the top bracket. Late 80s marketing strategies often cast him alongside Bachchan, playing second lead (Manmohan Desai’s Ganga Jamuna Saraswati, Mukul Anand’s Agneepath). Regarded in the late 80s as the ‘safest’ investment in Hindi cinema, although he had no major hits until Vijay Sadanah’s Pyar Jhukta Nahin, because he appealed to the semi-urban and rural audiences which sustained long-term distribution. Changed his image in Buddhadev Dasgupta’s Tahader Katha to win the national acting award. |