Shatrughan Sinha's nasty remark on Bachchan: 'Apart from 'Mere Angne Mein' he has maintained dignity' [Throwback]

Ever since the beginning, Shatrughan Sinha has been a man of unfiltered statements and undiplomatic responses. The man who has never failed from calling a spade, a spade, has had some very peculiar things to say about his contemporary, friend and rival – Amitabh Bachchan.

Shatrughan has praised Amitabh Bachchan as much as he has criticised him. In an interview with rediff, Shatrughan had also criticised Big B for his most popular song – 'Mere Angne Mein Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai?' Talking about the song, Shotgun had said, "I believe he is a combination of luck, talent and personality in totality. I used to say his time will come and he will beat them hollow and make others look like pygmies in front of him because he is really a towering inferno. What a voice, what a personality. He has poise, talent and luck, too. He is very well maintained. Apart from a couple of things like Mere angne mein tumhara kya kaam hai (Laawaris), he has maintained his dignity. Very few stars have the respect Amitabh commands."

Paying the price of being Amitabh Bachchan

Shatrughan further said, "Filmstars, especially today's filmstars, do not inspire much respect. Though Amitabh is one of us, he is so different from us. Amitabh has not only proved himself better than these people, he has also proved himself different from them. He has suffered too. He has paid the price of being Amitabh Bachchan."

The book that revealed it all

In his book, Anything But Khamosh: The Shatrughan Sinha Biography, the veteran actor has spilled the beans on how things went wrong between the two. "The problem was the applause I was getting for my performances. Amitabh could see the response I was getting. That's why he didn't want me in some of his films. On the sets of Kaala Patthar, the chair next to Amitabh would not be offered to me, nor would his umbrella be ever trained to cover any of us. We'd be heading from the location towards the same hotel but he'd sit in his car and never say, 'Let's go together'. I found it all very strange and wondered why this was happening because I never had any complaints against him."

While the two share an amicable bond now, the rivalry will remain one of the most talked about topics in the industry.