What actor/actress had the greatest decade in acting history?

 I would like to use two completely opposite examples of the greatest decade of an actor-

Amitabh Bachchan- 1975 to 1988- zenith of any actor's career

1975-

Sholay- All Time Blockbuster

Deewar- Blockbuster (

Chupke Chupke- Semi Hit (High critical acclaim)

Mili- Average (critical acclaim)

Zameer- Below average to average

Faraar- Below average to average

1976-

Hera Pheri- Hit

Kabhi Kabhi- Semi Hit

Do Anjaane- Semi Hit

1977-

Amar Akbar Anthony- Blockbuster

Parvarish- Superhit

Adalat- Semi Hit

Khoon Pasina- Semi Hit

Imaan Dharam- Flop

Alaap- Flop (critical acclaim)

1978-

Muqaddar ka Sikandar- Blockbuster

Trishul- Superhit

Don- Hit

Kasme Vaade- Semi Hit

Ganga ki Saugandh- Semi Hit

1979-

Suhag- Hit

Mr.Natwarlal- Semi Hit

The Great Gambler- Flop

Manzil- Average

Jurmana- Average (Critical acclaim)

Kala Patthar- Average (critical acclaim)

1980-

Dostana- Hit

Ram Balram- Semi Hit

Do aur do Paanch- Flop

Shaan- Below Average

1981-

Naseeb- Hit

Lawaris- Blockbuster

Kalia- Above Average

Yaarana- Above Average

Barsaat ki ek Raat- Average

Silsila- Average

1982-

Namak Halal- Blockbuster

Khuddar- Hit

Satte pe Satta- Semi Hit

Deshpremi- Average

Shakti- Below Average (High Critical acclaim)

Bemisal- Average (critical acclaim)

1983-

Coolie- Blockbuster

Andha Kanoon- Blockbuster

Pukar- Average

Nastik- Above Average

Mahaan- Flop

1984-

Inquilab- Average

Sharabi - Hit

1985-

Mard- Blockbuster

Geraftar- Hit

1986-

Aakhri Rasta- Semi Hit

1988-

Shahnshah- Semi Hit

Ganga Jamuna Sarasvati- Undrrperformer

From GJS onwards Amitabh faced a bad time with constant flops except Aaj ka Arjun and Hum.

The second actor I would like to present didn't give that many hits as he gave memorable films one after another. Let's see the filmography of Naseeruddin Shah between 1975–87 before he moved to commercial cinema completely.

Out of the 44 films he did during 1975–87 22 won National Awards, means every second film won a National award.

Between 1975–87 he has done films like

Nishant

Manthan

Godhuli

Bhavai

Junoon

Bhumika

Aakrosh

Hum Paanch

Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyon Aata hai

Chakra

Bezubaan

Bazaar

Mandi

Woh 7 Din

Masoom

Ardh Satya

Sparsh

Paar

Mohun Joshi Haazir ho

Holi

Jaane bhi do Yaaro

Trikaal

Ghulami

Khamosh

Genesis

Pestonjee

Libaas

Ijaazat

Such a great filmography is something to marvel at. This was before he turned into commercial cinema. He did Karma, Tridev Jalwa, Hero Hiralal, Mohra and Sarfarosh etc but his art house supremacy was at another level.

Was 80s the worst decade for Bollywood?

 Certainly it was the worst decade.

1980s was actually a very confused decade in Hindi cinema in the domain of commercial cinema. Though the art cinema of 1980s is considered the best with actors like Naseeruddin Shah,Om Puri Shabana Azmi ,Smita Patil, Farooq Sheikh,Deepti Naval giving their best performances yet their films did not “represent” Hindi cinema as much as the degraded commercial cinema at this time.

The commercial aspect of the industry worked on stardom and it was confused and was in a transition period between the 1970s(Rajesh Khanna, Angry young man Amitabh Bachchan) and 1990s (rise of the Khans).

There were no newcomers of the level of Rajesh Khanna or Bachchan or the Khans in this decade.

The early 1980s saw various flop films from Amitabh Bachchan and lets not go into the various foolish films made by Rajesh Khanna(he was already down post 1975). Then various older actors like Dharmendra tried their hands in B grade movies and made the situation even worse.

Yash Chopra’s Kabhie Kabhie in the late 1970s was a hit yet a movie made on similar lines,”Silsila” in 1981 was a flop. These were the “good commercial films” of Hindi cinema and Yash Chopra knew how to make good romantic films.

The audience refused to accept anymore romantic commercial films and switched to action films. They also did not like how the “Angry Young Man” suddenly switched to romance and poetry in his films.

What came up next were basically remakes of the worst films from south cinema and adding more masala into them. Vulgar scenes were common and also cheap,double meaning dialogues in films also became common.

Though Rekha did act in some good films like Khoobsurat and Umrao Jaan yet they were very few. Even Kamal Hassan tried his hands in Hindi cinema but was not that popular even after starring in some good films like “sadma”(remake of moondram pirai).

By the late 1980s,Bollywood had degraded to such low levels that even directors like Yash Chopra had to make movies like these to cater to the audience.

Then finally a new era started in 1989 when the Khans made their debut and also when Chandni was released.

Chandni was a major turning point in Hindi cinema as it actually improved the quality of commercial films. It was a blockbuster and Sridevi got a very new identity in cinema,so did Vinod Khanna who was earlier into all these action films.

Salman Khan’s “Maine Pyar kiya” and Aamir Khan’s “Qayamat se Qayamat Tak” were superhit films in 1989 and all these films brought back romance and melody in films. These movies marked the beginning of the “melody era” of the 1990s.

Later SRK made his debut with “Deewana”(1992) and thus this decade became the decade of the Khans.