His mannerisms and dialogues have become an integral part of the Bollywood lexicon and spawned numerous parodies and spoofs [Specially "Soja Nahi to Gabbar Aajayega"].

[4] Although it boasted an ensemble cast of superstars including Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjeev Kumar, who was nominated that year for the Filmfare award for Best Actor category, Amjad stole the show with his unorthodox and eerie dialogue delivery.

[10] After the success of Sholay, Khan continued to play negative roles in many subsequent Hindi films in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s – superseding, in terms of popularity and demand, the earlier Indian actor, Ajit.

In the critically acclaimed film Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977) (based on the novel of the same title), by Munshi Premchand and directed by Satyajit Ray, Khan played the helpless and deluded monarch Wajid Ali Shah, whose kingdom, Avadh, is being targeted by British colonialists from the British East India Company.

He played many positive roles such as in Yaarana (1981) and Laawaris (1981) as Amitabh's friend and father respectively, Rocky (1981) and Commander (1981).

He excelled at playing comical characters in films such as Qurbani (1980), Love Story and Chameli Ki Shaadi (1986).

In 1991, he reprised his role as Gabbar Singh in Ramgarh Ke Sholay, a parody of the legendary film which included look-alikes of Dev Anand and Amitabh Bachchan.

One such dispute occurred when Meenakshi Seshadri was forced to drop out of Damini (1993) by Raj Kumar Santoshi because she rejected his proposal.

[8][12][13] On 15 October 1976,[14][15] Amjad Khan met with a serious accident on the Mumbai-Goa highway which left him with broken ribs and a punctured lung.