Agneepath came out at a time when Amitabh had two-three flops at the box office and at a time when Sunny Deol had the attention of Bollywood with his award-winning performance in the critically and commercially successful "Ghayal".
Agneepath was seen as a copy of "SCARFACE" but while there were similar moments calling it an out and out copy would have been unfair. Amitabh adopted a different voice for the role and was convincing as a gangster who is out for revenge on the man responsible for his father's death and his family leaving their village. Agneepath flopped at the box-office and many reasons were given:
- Amitabh's voice which the audience did not like.
- The film losing grip when it went onto Amitabh and his sister angle or the sister and her romance angle.
- No hit songs that could have promoted the movie.
- Some claiming that Mithun's overacting didn't help.
Even with the film flopping Amitabh's performance earned him an national award for best actor but people were bit mixed about if he deserved it. Mukul S.Anand who directed the movie passed away a few years later and Mithun slowly went onto do films that didn't do justice to his talent. Amitabh went on to deliver a hit later on called Aaj Ka Arjun. Agneepath was not a flawless film, it had its faults but it would have to be one of those films where Amitabh delivered another great performance.
It may not have been a hit but the fact that it won Amitabh his first National Award showed that the film atleast had some positives despite the result in the end.