Bachchan, Ashok Raj focuses upon the latter, whom he considers a colossus in Bollywood. He projects Bachchan as the dominant hero (mainly in the form of the angry young man) in the late 1970s and 1980s, along with the political and socio-economic scenario then prevailing that lent authenticity to such an image. Bachchan’s foray into a variety of genres (such as romance, comedy and crime) is then described as also his roles as a senior artiste. Next, his contemporaries come into the picture. For instance: the macho and versatile Dharmendra (who entered Bollywood as a hero almost a decade before Bachchan), the reliable Vinod Khanna, the charming Shashi Kapoor, the ‘explosive’ Shatrughan (Shotgun) Sinha, the cuddly but highly talented Rishi Kapoor, the debonair Feroz Khan and his brother Sanjay Khan. The author then moves on to other heroes such as the ‘cute’ Biswajit, the strapping Joy Mukerji, the jaunty Jeetendra and the nimble-footed Mithun Chakraborty. Next in line are Raj Babbar, Amol Palekar, Vinod Mehra, Vijay Anand, Randhir Kapoor, Rakesh Roshan, Parikshat Sahni, Anil Dhawan, Navin Nischal, Deepak Prashar, Sachin, Kiran Kumar, Vijay Arora, Raj Kiran and Kumar Gaurav. Lesser known faces such as Sudesh Kumar, Ashok and Dilip Raj are also mentioned.
Next appear the ‘durable’ heroes such as Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol and Jackie Shroff who are followed by the new-age heroes. The author rounds off the text by finally bringing into the limelight ‘misfit’ but highly accomplished and proficient heroes such as Kamalahasan, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai, Kay Kay Menon, Arshad Warsi, Rahul Bose and Irfan Khan.
