He played supporting roles in many films before appearing in Gulzar's "Mere Apne" in 1971. He was cast along with his future wife Poonam Sinha, then called as Komal, in the movie "Sabak" (1973). He played supporting roles in "Khilona", Dulal Guha's "Dost" in 1974, "Aa Gale Lag Jaa", "Jheel Ke Us Paar" and "Gambler" in 1970. He acted with Amitabh Bachchan in films like "Raaste Ka Paththar, Yaar Meri Zindagi, Shaan" and "Kala Paththar", of which "Shaan" was the biggest success. He later acted in "Bombay to Goa", "Dostana" and "Naseeb". His films as the lead hero between 1970 and 1975 were not hits. His first successful film as lead hero was in "Kalicharan" in 1976. Subhash Ghai had went with the story of "Kalicharan" to N. N. Sippy and said he wanted to direct his first film. N. N. Sippy got ready to produce after few days, but wanted to cast only Rajesh Khanna in the lead role of "Kalicharan". Then only when N. N. Sippy confirmed with Rajesh Khanna that Khanna did not have dates for the years 1976 and 1977, Sippy asked Subhash Ghai to go ahead with the script and direct "Kalicharan" with Sinha in the lead.