Amitabh Bachchan has also done a fair share of movies that didn’t do well at the box office, and one such movie is…
Amitabh Bachchan has delivered innumerable hits throughout his career that the audience still watches with love and enthusiasm. However, the legendary actor has also done a fair share of movies that didn’t do well at the box office, and one such movie is Ganga Jamuna Saraswati.
About the movie
Released in 1988 and directed by Manmohan Desai, Ganga Jamuna Saraswati is often regarded as one of the major flops of the actor’s career. While the movie featured a star-studded cast, including Amitabh Bachchan, Meenakshi Seshadri, Jaya Prada, Mithun Chakraborty, Amrish Puri and Nirupa Roy, it failed to leave a mark on its audience and became a commercial disaster.
In the 1980s, multi-starrer films were believed to be a surefire formula for success, especially with a great cast and director, who had previously delivered blockbuster hits, including Don and Deewar.
What went wrong with the movie
Despite the high expectations from the duo of Amitabh Bachchan and Manmohan Desai, the film bombed at the box office. Interestingly, the film underwent several changes during its production. Initially, Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor and Jeetendra were meant to feature in the movie as the main leads, but after a falling out between Manmohan Desai and writer Kader Khan, the entire cast and script were changed.
The movie was originally named Amar Akbar Anthony Part 2 and it was intended to extend the success of Manmohan Desai’s Amar Akbar Anthony. In that version, Amitabh Bachchan was to play Ganga Ram, Jeetendra would portray Jamuna Das, and Rishi Kapoor was cast as Saraswati Chandra. However, when Jeetendra dropped out and Mithun Chakraborty stepped in, the dynamics of the film completely changed.
The script and characters were completely changed
This left Rishi Kapoor without a role, and he was eventually cut from the film because the script, originally crafted for three male leads, was no longer relevant. Finally, Amitabh Bachchan played the character of Ganga, Meenakshi Seshadri portrayed Jamuna and Jaya Prada took on the role of Saraswati.
Reportedly, Ganga Jamuna Saraswati had a budget of around Rs 8 crore, but only managed to gross Rs 5 crore at the box office, marking a massive financial loss.
