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He made his debut in 1969 with the film 'Saat Hindustani'. The film failed at the box office. The fate was the same for his next few movies like 'Parwaana (1971)', 'Reshma Aur Shera (1971)', 'Bansi Birju (1972)', 'Sanjog (1972)', 'Namak Haram (1973)', 'Saudagar (1973)', etc.
But there was a small group of people who noticed his potential and became unofficial brand managers of Brand Amitabh - which included legendary Indian film makers like Prakash Mehra, Ramesh Sippy, Manmohan Desai and Yash Chopra, and the screenplay writing duo Salim-Javed. In fact his first big hit came in 1973 with Prakash Mehra-directed 'Zanjeer', written by Salim-Javed.

His tall and dark looks gave a new kind of action hero to the people. As it is said, a brand can become popular only when it has contextual relevance. And the image of "Angry Young Man" fighting against a corrupt society fitted exactly with the social and political situation prevalent in the 70s. "This was appropriate at that time, for in the mid-seventies domestic politics was in a period of great turmoil, student unrest was high and the employment prospects for educated young men were bleak at best," as said by Intikhab Virani, Senior Editor at the Indian film trade publication Box Office Today. People could connect to that brand as it was a hopeless era.

Values of the Brand AB

Brand AB represented a person who has been ill-treated / wronged by the social system and fighting against the system to get justice. In fact a look at all the hit movies of AB would show the same brand image. In the film 'Deewar (1975)', his character turns a Mafia don and smuggler due to injustice done to him in his childhood. In the films 'Trishul (1978)' and 'Laawaris (1981)' his characters were abandoned by his father. In the film 'Shakti (1982)', his character is that of a son of a strict police-officer who does not come to save his kidnapped son. So the brand managers of AB, as mentioned above, used this theme of neglected by society and fighting against it to churn out more hits like 'Sholay', 'Do Anjaane', 'Don', and 'Naseeb', etc.

So when we talk of this Brand AB, the core value based on which the brand was created and became successful was that of a "Saviour" - he was a saviour of the neglected masses, by making them fulfilling their aspirations of fighting against a corrupt society. The other values of the brand - toughness, determination, trustworthiness - were all in the outer crust of the brand.

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* Contributed by: -
Shirshendu Ganguli,
Research Scholar,
ICFAI Institute for Management Teachers, Hyderabad.