Rishi Kapoor rejected THIS film, writers threatened to destroy his career like Rajesh Khanna, later the role was offered to…, his name is…, film was…

After Deewar became a blockbuster, producer Gulshan Rai decided to make Trishul (1978). Penned by prolific writing duo Salim-Javed, director Dulal Guha was initially going to make the action-thriller film with superstar Jeetendra. However, the film got cancel due to unknow reasons. Later on, the writers went to narrate the film to Yash Chopra, and he agreed to direct it.

Interestingly, the role of Ravi portrayed by Sachin Pilgaonkar was first offered to Rishi Kapoor. He said no to the role, which made writers Salim-Javed furious, as no one had the audacity to say no to their films back then.

When Rishi Kapoor said no to Salim-Javed’s offer

Rishi Kapoor, in his autobiography Khullam Khulla, mentioned that how Salim Khan got irked when he saw him at a hotel after he rejected to work in Trishul. He walked up to him, just to make him realise that he had made a mistake. Salim Khan even threatened to destroy his career.

Rishi Kapoor wrote in his book, “I was playing a game of snooker when Salim sa’ab walked over and asked me, ‘How did you have the guts to refuse Salim–Javed?’ Not one to be intimidated, I shot back, ‘I didn’t like the role.’” Rishi continued, “Salim sa’ab boasted to me, ‘Do you know that to this day nobody has said no to us? We can destroy your career.”

Salim Khan threatened Rishi Kapoor

“He said, ‘Who will work with you? You know, we had offered Zanjeer to Rajesh Khanna and he turned us down. We didn’t do anything to him but we created an alternative to him, a hero called Amitabh Bachchan, who destroyed Rajesh Khanna. We will do the same to you.” Rishi added. However, he also mentioned that the rift gradually died soon.

Helmed  by Yash Chopra, Trishul  featured an ensemble cast of Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Raakhee Gulzar, Poonam Dhillon, and Sachin Pilgaonkar with Waheeda Rehman in a special appearance.

Meanwhile, Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan were the most in-demand writing duo. They wrote 24 films together, of those 22 were hits. They even charged fees similar to the top actors, proving that a powerful script could attract audiences as much as the star power could.

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