Mithun Chakraborty may have been a recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his incrededible contribution in Indian cinema, however, his journey in the industry has been far from easy. The actor faced a lot of rejections early on in his career. So much so, that no actress was ready to work with him and it was Zeenat Aman who broke that jinx associated with his name. Mithun has continued to be grateful to Zeenat over the years and always thanks her for changing the course of his career. A while ago, when he had appeared on the television show ‘Sa re Ga Ma Pa’, he had recalled his struggling days and said, “Kitni ladaai ek insaan lad sakta hai. Koi bhi badi heroine mere saath kaam karne ko taiyaar nahin thi. They thought I was a ‘chota star.’ ‘Yeh kabhi kya hero banega?’ Kya kya bolte they mere baare mein. Phir dard hota hai. (How many battles can a person fight? No big actress was ready to work with me. He can never become a hero. Who will make him a hero? They said a lot of unsavoury things about me. I don’t even want to say it. It only hurts me).”He added, “There was a time when I thought I wouldn’t transition from B-grade films to A-grade films. There were times when the actresses walked out even after the film was announced. There was pressure and other actors were insecure that I would make it big someday. So they may have warned those heroines, ‘Iske saath kaam karogi toh humare saath kaam nahi kar sakti.’” However, this scenario changed when Zeenat agreed to act with Mithun in the film ‘Taqdeer’. Mithun further added that Zeenat once said, “What a good-looking man he is! I will do the film with him.” He added, “It was Zeenat ji who broke the jinx. Zeenat ji had the status of the number-one heroine of that time, so following her footsteps, every other actress started saying yes to the films that I worked in. With Taqdeer’s release, I became an A-category actor. I will forever be grateful to Zeenat ji for helping me attain that. Zeenat ji, if you are listening to me, I offer my pranaam to you.”
