The 70s decade marked the end of romance as director Prakash Mehra and writer Salim Javed launched Amitabh Bachchan as the angry young man in Zanjeer. Departing from the glamour divas of the earlier decade, unconventional heroines like Jaya Bhaduri in Guddi, Zeenat Aman in Hare Ram Hare Krishna and Shabana Azmi in Shyam Benegal’s Ankur made their debut. Mainstream filmmakers Ramesh Sippy, Yash Chopra, Manmohan Desai, Manoj Kumar, Subhash Ghai co-existed with art directors like MS Sathyu, Govind Nihalani, Gulzar, Basu Chatterjee.
It was an era of poetry in lyrics and melody and the established Naushad Ali Khan and SD Burman survived with the rising Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal and RD Burman. Those were times of multi starrers and of popular pairings, Amitabh-Rekha, Dharmendra-Hema Malini, Rishi Kapoor- Neetu Singh and Shatrughan Sinha-Reena Roy. It was a prosperous time at the box-office. Sholay completed silver jubilee. Deewaar completed its golden jubilee and Roti Kapda aur Makaan celebrated its diamond jubilee.