Bachchan blockbuster director passes away

Filmmaker Prakash Mehra has died in hospital today following a long illness.

Mehra’s health was said to have worsened after his wife’s death. He was 69.

Mehra began directing in 1968, but it was his work with Amitabh Bachchan that made Mehra a household name.

The 1973 film Zanjeer starring Bachchan began the trend for action films and pioneered Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ image.

Later collaborations include Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Sharabi and Namak Halal.

It was rumoured that the relationship between the two soured after the failure of Jaadugar in 1989, but Bachchan visited him in hospital shortly before his death.

Despite a string of box-office flops in the 1990s, the India Motion Picture Directors Association honoured him with a lifetime achievement award in 2006.