This was followed by the film "Parde Ke Peechey" opposite debutant Yogeeta Bali followed by "Elaan" (with Rekha), "Amar Prem" (1971) and "Lal Patthar", though it was only Shakti Samanta's "Anuraag" (1971) with Moushumi Chatterjee, which established him as an actor. He went on to appear in over 100 films in his career spanning over two decades. He played the lead role in his earlier films but often acted in many multi-starrers as the secondary lead or played supporting roles such as a brother, friend, uncle, father and police officer. He worked with many actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Sunil Dutt and Dharmendra. His frequent female co-stars included Rekha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Yogeeta Bali, Shabana Azmi and Bindiya Goswami.