cinema. Suraj was the last successful film of Rajendra Kumar and Shankar Jaikishan, who introduced singer Sharda through this film. According to Boxofficeindia.com, the film grossed around 50,000,000 with net gross of 25,000,000 and becomes second highest-grossing film of 1966 with a verdict of "super hit" at the box office. The film was also the thirteenth highest-grossing film of the decade, with its adjusted to inflation net gross about . While Ibosnetwork.com reported that the film grossed 40,000,000 and its adjusted to inflation gross about . Following Suraj, Vyjayanthimala starred in the historical film Amrapali. Based on life of the Nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) of Vaishali Amrapali, she played the title role along with Sunil Dutt, who enacted the role of King Ajatashatru. Upon release, the film opened to widespread critical acclaim and was India's official submission for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 39th Academy Awards. The film was a colossal disaster at the box-offie, which left Vyjayanthimala heartbroken, where she decided to quit the industry, though director Baldev Raj Chopra felt that she could have easily continued for another decade in lead roles. After Amrapali, the biggest box office failure of her career and some personal issues with co-stars, Vyjayanthimala lost interest in films. In 1967, she was signed into Tapi Chanakya's Ram Aur Shyam, which was a remake of the 1964 Telugu film Ramudu Bheemudu. She co-starred with Dilip Kumar for the seventh time, who had previously made some memorable films with her. However, due to some misunderstandings between Kumar and Vyjayanthimala, Vyjayanthimala was replaced by Waheeda Rehman. The same year, she starred in Vijay Anand's Jewel Thief after Saira Banu backed out of the project due to her marriage with Dilip Kumar. The crime thriller reunited Vyjayanthimala with her co-star Dev Anand after Amar Deep (1958). Jewel Thief also had Ashok Kumar as the main antagonist with four more female leads Tanuja, Helen, Anju Mahendru and Faryal. For the first time she worked under Dev Anand's production house, Navketan Films after being rejected by Tad Danielewski for the lead role in the 1965 Hindi film Guide. The success of Jewel Thief made Vyjayanthimala and Dev Anand a hit pair. Three decades later, Vyjayanthimala was approached by Dev Anand for a role in the sequel of Jewel Thief; Return of Jewel Thief (1996), but she refused to act in the film as she did not