Imagine being at the absolute peak of your career, people are going crazy just to get a glimpse of you & you choose that exact moment to hit pause and walk into politics.
Amitabh Bachchan entered politics in 1984 & after that he significantly reduced the number of films he was doing. As a result, scripts like Mr India and Khalnayak which were originally written for him went to Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt
Politics robbed Amitabh of what could have been an even longer peak run, this was an era where audiences were so invested in him that even a low grade macho film like Mard was guaranteed a blockbuster simply by having his face on the poster
His 1988 comeback via Shahenshah was met with genuine madness from audiences, full houses at opening, good collections, but the film was still labeled an underperformer because the bar for Bachchan was simply on another level.
After 1984, Bachchan was barely releasing anything, one film here, a year's gap there.
Mard, Aakhree Raasta, Shahenshah, Ajooba, Toofaan, Mai Azaad hoo, that was basically it across 5 years. And these happened to be his peak years. More output during this period and his stardom would have had a much longer shelf life…