Gerald D'Cunha

  “Try not to become a man of success; rather become a man of value.” Albert Einstein   W hen I was a teenager, Rajesh Khanna was the Super Star. If fame, insane fanfare and box-office collection were the yardsticks to measure a film-star’s success, then, one had to stop at Rajesh Khanna… He had achieved all of these and was riding on the crest of success-wave… But, then, a wave is just a wave. More than anyone else, Rajesh Khanna knew, that the wave he was riding on would, soon, crash… Fame and fanfare would, soon, fade away… Just like the stars in the sky did. Apparently, this realization – that success was transient – prompted him to keep repeating, with the desired effect, his own dialogue from the film ‘Daag’ (Brilliantly penned by Sahir Ludianvi)… “Izzaten, shohraten, chahaten, ulfaten… koi bhi cheez duniya mein rahti nahin; aaj main hoon jahan kal koi aur tha aaj main hoon jahan kal koi aur tha… Ye bhi ek daur hai woh bhi ek daur tha.” T he beauty ...

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.” - William Shakespeare W henever someone refers him as a ‘Super Star’, Amitabh Bachchan is very quick to brush that tag aside. “I am not a ‘Super Star’,” he quips, “I never was one… and never will be one.” The typical Amitabh Bachchan modesty? Well, when I was a teenager, we knew who the so-called ‘Super Start’ was… It was Rajesh Khanna; and Amitabh Bachchan was a total misfit – nowhere close to the frenzy, particularly from the female folk. Nothing of that kind would ever repeat despite all the super-glamorous world we live in now… Amitabh Bachchan went up the hard and long way and dislodged the King of Romance, the Super Star, Rajesh Khanna. But, Amitabh...