Rajesh Khanna continues to hold the record of having 17 consecutive hits in Bollywood. The record made him the first biggest superstar of Bollywood. He himself once confessed he felt like he was ‘next to God.’ However, the success did not last for too long. When Rajesh tasted failure, it came crashing in harder than he expected. In an interview alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh admitted that after seven flops, he had breakdown on his rooftop.
“I remember that once at three in the morning, I was pretty high on spirits and, suddenly, it was too much for me to stomach because it was my first taste of failure. One after another, seven films had flopped in a row. It was raining, pitch dark and up there alone on my terrace, I lost control,” Rajesh told Movie magazine, in the May 1990 issue.
“I yelled out, Parvardigar, hum gareebon ka itna sakht imtihaan na le ki hum tere vajood ko inkar kar de,’ (Don’t test my patience to such an extent that I question your existence.). Dimple (Kapadia) and my staff came running, thinking that I had gone insane. It was because success hit me so much that I couldn’t take the failure. I remember the next day, Balaji (a South producer) offered me Amar Deep (1958) out of the blue. It gave a second lease to my career,” he added.
Rajesh’s 17 hits include Aradhana, Doli, Bandhan, Ittefaq, Do Raaste, Khamoshi, Safar, The Train, Kati Patang, Sachaa Jhutha, Aan Milo Sajna, Mehboob Ki Mehendi, Choti Bahu, Anand, Andaz, Maryada and Haathi Mere Saathi. In 1971, Rajesh’s success streak broke after Badnam Farishte failed at the box office.
Rajesh asked Amitabh how he managed to remain untouched by the successes and failures in his career. “I am very surprised, Amit, that success and failure leave you untouched. I mean, I am not a superhuman being. You are not Jesus Christ and I am not Mahatma Gandhi,” he said in the same interview.
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