While Amitabh Bachchan's chemistry with his heroines -- from Jaya Bhaduri to Rekha to Hema Malini -- brought sizzle to his films, many of his biggest blockbusters have been powered by his combustible combination with male co-stars.
Whether in a collaborative or combative onscreen pairing, when Bachchan is pitted against other major actor, sparks are almost always sure to fly at the box office.
Amitabh Bachchan, who turned 83 on October 11, is still forging new creative affiliations, whether with Prabhas (Kalki 2898 AD) or Ranbir Kapoor (Brahmastra).
Dinesh Raheja explores Bachchan's 2-hero combinations and how successful they were.
Amitabh Bachchan-Shashi Kapoor
Hit Score: 8/13
Amitabh has done more films with Shashi Kapoor than with any heroine. Genuine friends in real life, this pair worked in as many as 13 films together starting with Roti Kapda Aur Makaan (1974) in which both played secondary roles to Manoj Kumar.
Yash Chopra set the tone for their chalk-and-cheese appeal with the 1975 superhit, Deewar -- Amitabh played the brooding laconic loner while Shashi was the gregarious, light-hearted foil.
These characterisations for the two stars caught on, and were repeated in Chopra's Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Trishul (1978), Kaala Pathar (1979) and Silsila (1981), in which Shashi put in a special appearance as Bachchan's brother.
Bachchan's coterie of big-name directors preferred making multi-starrers, and to a man they all showcased this star combination -- Manmohan Desai (Suhaag, 1979), Prakash Mehra (Namak Halal, 1982) and Ramesh Sippy (Shaan, 1980; Akayla, 1991).
The Bachchan-Kapoor combo had the occasional stumble -- Imaan Dharam (1977), Do Aur Do Paanch (1980) and their swan song Ajooba (1990) in which Kapoor directed Bachchan. But they remain memorable as arguably the most popular bromance in Hindi cinema.
Amitabh Bachchan-Vinod Khanna
Hit Score: 5/5
In Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), when policeman Vinod Khanna and local dada Amitabh Bachchan take off their shirts and launch into a dusty street fight, neither actor needs six-pack abs or cleverly concealed stuntmen or VFX of exploding cars to project pure machismo.
As their raw-knuckle fisticuffs evidence, these two action stars were extraordinarily well-matched.
The audience enthusiastically cheered this onscreen partnership.
Over a span of three short years, this pair did five films together in which they both had substantial roles, and each film was a crowd-puller -- Hera Pheri (1976), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Parvarish (1977), Khoon Pasina (1977) and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978).
Special appearances by one or the other in earlier films such as Reshma Aur Shera, Kunwara Baap and Zameer are not germane to this discussion.
This combination's 100 percent success rate unfortunately did not stop Khanna from suddenly announcing his retirement from the movies in 1978 and setting out on a spiritual quest guided by Rajneesh.
Notably, Bachchan's biggest post-Sholay blockbusters like Amar Akbar Anthony and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, co-starred Khanna, establishing them forever as the Awesome Twosome.
Amitabh Bachchan-Dharmendra
Hit Score: 2/3
The through-the-roof success of Sholay (1975) made them the Jodi No 1 for that period of time. In this classic, the two stars played well against each other -- Dharmendra's uproarious antics gelling with Amitabh Bachchan's bone dry delivery. Most importantly, the jaan pe bhi khelenge nature of their dosti seemed unforced and organic.
Earlier that same year, they had played besties in another memorable film, the Hrishikesh Mukherji comedy, Chupke Chupke.
The two actors' flair for complementary comic timing was particularly noteworthy in the whacky Saregama 1234 song number.
The 1970s was the era of multi-starrers and Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan could have potentially done many films together. But it was difficult for filmmakers to accommodate two major stars in one story and give them equal prominence.
Dharmendra opted out of Ramesh 'Sholay' Sippy's Shaan and the two stars worked in only more film together.
Ram Balram had a talented director in Vijay Anand but it was not a patch on Dharmendra-Amitabh's earlier triumphs.
Amitabh Bachchan-Rajesh Khanna
Hit Score: 2/2
Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan were the two definitive superstars of their era. But while Rajesh Khanna reigned over the first half of the 1970s, Amitabh Bachchan became an unstoppable force mid-decade.
Khanna and Bachchan did two memorable films together when Amitabh was still finding his feet as a star.
Khanna had the author-backed, award-winning title role in Anand (1971), but it was also Amitabh's breakthrough film.
As the terminally ill Anand and as the concerned doctor called Babu Moshai by his buddy, Khanna and Bachchan made palpable the underlying affection that was the bedrock of their friendship.
Two years later, when they reteamed for Namak Haram, Bachchan had raised his profile.
This time, it was he who won the award: The Best Supporting trophy.
Both actors, however, were convincing as thinking men who do not let their friendship get divided by ideological differences.
Sadly, once Amitabh became a megastar, the two actors never did another film together.
Amitabh Bachchan-Shatrughan Sinha
Hit Score: 3/4
Whenever the interactions between two male characters had an abrasive edge, filmmakers thought it best to pit Shatrughan Sinha against Amitabh Bachchan.
The simmering tension between these two alpha males anchors much of the early proceedings of Kaala Patthar (1979).
In this pair's two big hits, Dostana (1980) and Naseeb (1981), they play friends whose relations are strained once they both fall in love with the same woman, Zeenat Aman in the former and Hema Malini in the latter.
Shatrughan played a secondary role in Shaan (1980) just as he had done in Bombay To Goa in the initial days of their career. A search for equity in roles led to the dissolution of this partnership.
Amitabh Bachchan-Rishi Kapoor
Hit Score: 4/6
Rishi Kapoor brought an air of youthful freshness to the often grim themes that characterised Bachchan movies. In Yash Chopra's Kabhi Kabhie (1976), he plays a headstrong romantic who is Amitabh's prospective son-in-law despite being only 10 years younger in real life.
Manmohan Desai best captured the odd-couple dynamics of this pairing in a hat-trick of hit films, Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Naseeb (1981) and Coolie (1983).
Songs such as Chal Mere Bhai and Lambooji Tinguji were cleverly conceived set pieces that played to the strengths of both the stars. Ajooba in 1990, however, couldn't do that successfully.
The Amitabh-Rishi team is remarkable for being the only one from the 1970s to have continued till the present millennium. Their last collaboration was the well-received 102 Not Out which was released in 2018, just two years before Rishi Kapoor passed away.
Amitabh Bachchan-Shah Rukh Khan
Hit Score: 3/3
Filmmakers like Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar have resorted to the Amitabh Bachchan-Shah Rukh Khan pairing to portray the intricacies of the eternal clash between generations. And who better to represent their individual age group than these two megastars?
In two major money-spinners, Mohabbatein (2000) and Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Shah Rukh plays the young challenger who rebels against the principled but rigid world-view espoused by Amitabh's character, until there is a final dramatic thaw in relations.
In a diametrically different take, their third film together Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) showcased Amitabh as an aging ladies man who doesn't castigate his daughter-in-law or Shah Rukh for their extramarital affair.
Since then, Amitabh has made special appearances in Shah Rukh starrers Veer Zara (2004) and Paheli (2005) while the younger star has returned the favour by doing a cameo in Bhoothnath (2008). This bonhomie, however, has strangely not extended to doing another film together.
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