Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan, the most cherished couple of Bollywood celebrate their 41st Wedding Anniversary today. IndiaGlitz wishes the couple happy wedding anniversary and prays the couple celebrate many more such anniversaries.

Though Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan married in 1973 but they had fallen in love in 1972 after the duo did a number of movies together like ‘Bansi Birju’ (1972), ‘Ek Nazar’ (1972) etc.

Jaya Bachchan in one of her interview recalling her first encounter with Amitabh Bachchan said, "Actually I had seen Amitji first at FTII (Film and Television Institute of India, Pune) but I happened to knew him in person when Hrishida (Hrishikesh Mukherjee, eminent filmmaker who has made great hits like ‘Anari’, ‘Anand’, ‘Abhimaan’, ‘Namak Haraam’, ‘Gol Maal’, ‘Khubsoorat’) introduced him to me when he was casting me for the movie Guddi."

She informs, "Few know that Amitji was the original choice to play the hero opposite me in Guddi but while he was busy finalizing the cast and other details of Guddi, Amitji’s movie Anand was released and Amitji became very popular. In fact he even won the ‘Best supporting actor Filmfare award’ hence Hrishida replaced him another new comer Samit Bhanja because Hrishida wanted a fresh face opposite me."

She adds, "But I found Amitji to be sensitive, intelligent and man with tremendous sense of humor. Hence we worked together in ‘Bansi Birju’ (1972), ‘Ek Nazar’ (1972) but unfortunately both the films failed and we were termed as jinx pair."

Readers will wonder so how did ‘Zanjeer’ happen? Well it’s an interesting tale. The filmmaker Prakash Mehra and the writer pair Salim Javed were both debutant and their subject had been rejected by many top actors like Dev Anand, Raaj Kumar and Dharmendra. Hence the filmmaker decided to gamble on upcoming actor Amitabh Bachchan but no heroine wished to be paired opposite him as he had a string of 17 flops. Hence though Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan was a jinx pair Prakash Mehra took another gamble and to his fortune he hit a jackpot!

Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan together includes ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’ (2001), ‘Silsila’ (1981), ‘Sholay’ (1975), ‘Chupke Chupke’ (1975), ‘Mili’ (1975), ‘Abhimaan’ (1973), ‘Zanjeer’ (1973), ‘Bansi Birju’ (1972), ‘Ek Nazar’ (1972).

This article is from Raaga's music blog. Read more music at http://blog.raaga.com