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3 min readMumbaiFeb 10, 2026 07:51 PM IST
1975 vs. 2026: Master Raju recalls the time he had more work than Amitabh Bachchan.
There was a time in Bombay cinema when child actor Master Raju was in tremendous demand. Almost every third film featured him in some role or the other. From working with auteurs like Yash Chopra and Basu Chatterjee to Gulzar, he had covered it all. There was even a period when he was doing more films than Amitabh Bachchan, the very heartbeat of the 1970s. He recently reflected on this extraordinary phase in a conversation with Siddharth Kannan. Raju revealed how, during the shooting of the film Faraar (1975), Amitabh had to come to the sets and wait for him because the young actor was in such high demand, while Amitabh did not have as much work at the time.
Amitabh Bachchan waited while my shots were taken first
“Amit ji is very punctual, and how should I say this but back then he had less work than I had? It makes me laugh even saying this. So he would come on time, and his close-ups would be taken first. Then, when I arrived, he would be asked to sit aside because my shots were prioritized since I would had to leave in three hours. During that time, Amit ji would just wait. After my shots were done, they would take his remaining close-ups.”
He also recounted a humorous incident from the same film when his mother scolded Amitabh on set: “On the set of Faraar, my mother scolded Amit ji. In one scene, he was showing a wound on his hand, and flies were swarming. Lunch was going on, and we were eating. My mother said, ‘Please cover this, there are flies here and we are eating.’”
Everyone used to come late except Amitabh Bachchan
In the same conversation, Raju highlighted Amitabh’s discipline on set: “It was a norm back then to come late to sets. Vinod Khanna ji would come late, Sanjeev Kumar ji would come late, Kaka ji (Rajesh Khanna) would come late, even Dharm ji. I think everyone except Amit ji would come late. In fact, arriving late was a fashion, and not coming was also a fashion.”
Raju also spoke about the tension that arose as Amitabh’s popularity grew, challenging Rajesh Khanna’s “first superstar” status: “He didn’t want anyone to replace him, and Amitabh Bachchan was rising fast. Rajesh Khanna said something against Amitabh Bachchan to Jaya ji (Jaya Bachchan), and that led to a fight. The shooting was even halted.”
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