Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra were considered in the Bollywood adaptation of The Three Musketeers. The megastars have acted together in multiple films. They have been in some really iconic ones like Chupke Chupke and Sholay. Both Big B and Dharmendra are named among the biggest superstars of Indian Cinema. Both the actors enjoyed unparalleled fan following across the nation in their peak era.
Nonetheless, during the 1970s, multiple producers tried to bring the duo together. However, it is unfortunate that very few succeeded. Not many are aware of the fact that when Sholay was in the making, the writer duo of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar were planning a film. The duo along with GP Sippy and Ramesh Sippy were considering another film with Dharmendra and Bachchan.
Bollywood adaptation of The Three Musketeers was named Teen Farishtey
Subsequent to this plan, the creative team was working on a Hindi adaptation of the Hollywood classic The Three Musketeers. They had even locked the lead cast in Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, and Sanjeev Kumar. The film was titled Teen Farishtey. Just when everything was moving smoothly, there was a delay in the shooting schedule of Sholay. This hold-up resulted in the availability of the dates from Big B and Dharmendra going haywire.
Consequently, the makers decided to put the film on hold. A couple of years later in 1976, the same subject was revived again. However, this time Pramod Chakravorty was locked in as the director. While Bachchan and Dharmendra continued to be a part of the film, Sanjeev Kumar was then replaced by Vinod Khanna. Yet again, the film was put on hold due to some issues and it finally took off in 1979 as Jagir. The film had Dharmendra, Mithun Chakraborty and Danny Denzongpa leading the cast. The film was released in 1984 during the Diwali weekend and proved to be a blockbuster.
The camaraderie between Dharmendra and Mithun (which was to be originally played by Bachchan in the early 1970s) was said to be the major highlights of Jagir.
Incidentally, around 1976 Vinod Khanna-Amitabh Bachchan starrer Parvarish and Amar Akbar Anthony were being made. Both these blockbusters had dialogues by Kadar Khan and scripted by KK Shukla. Additionally, both these movies were directed by Manmohan Desai.
