When Salim-Javed came together for a Salman Khan movie but didn’t get credit

From the early 1970s, writer-duo Salim-Javed has risen to become a name to revere. As Amazon Prime Video is set to unleash a docu-series on them, Angry Young Men, on August 20, here’s looking at some lesser-known facts about them, individually and together.

 

When Salim-Javed came together for a Salman Khan movie but didn’t get credit

 

Salim Khan’s father, Abdul Rashid Khan, was Deputy Inspector-General of Police in Indore for 32 years, at a time when only British officers could hold this post. Salim would keenly absorb stories told by his father about police cases and interesting characters and also mentally stored details about them.

 

His first ambition was to be a cricketer and then a pilot. He still retains a flying license and has over 100 hours of flying to his credit, but realized that flying is about going by the book and being bound by rules. So when filmmaker K. Amarnath saw him at a wedding in Indore and offered him a role in Baraat (1960), with Ajit (of ‘Loin’ fame) as hero, he accepted it.

 

Ajit helped the writer a lot. But Salim’s acting career was restricted to B-grade films as supporting actor or hero, and a few small roles in A-grade films like Professor, Teesri Manzil and Diwana. In this phase, he enacted some popular songs, like Rafi’s ‘Mujhe tumse mohabbat hai’ (Bachpan) and Mukesh’s ‘Kyoon jhuki jhuki hain palkein’ (Chhaila Babu).

 

Salim soon realized that he lacked the art of projecting a character. “We were in a field that dealt with images, not people,” he decided. Prone to analyze scripts, in the late ‘60s, he wrote and sold his first story to Ashok Kumar. But in 1969, Ashok Kumar gave it to hit director Brij, who was starting out as producer. Do Bhai, featuring Ashok Kumar and Jeetendra, did average business, and soon, Salim Khan joined Sippy Films’ Story Department.

 

Lyricist Jan Nissar Akhtar’s son, Javed Akhtar, who had come to Mumbai to become a director, was an assistant and dialogue director on Sarhadi Lutera, in which Salim played a supporting role. Its director, S.M. Sagar, commissioned both of them to work on his film, Adhikar, an Ashok Kumar presentation. But the film was credited to R.S. Verma (story), a contest winner with leading Hindi film magazine, Madhuri, and Ramesh Pant (screenplay-dialogue)!

 

 

Salim asked Javed join Sippy Films’ Story Department, where they worked on a salary of Rs 750. Their job was to listen to scripts, give feedback and work on them if G.P. Sippy wanted to make a film out of them. “We did most of the work for Andaz and all for Seeta Aur Geeta, a plot based on The Corsican Twins,” noted Salim.

 

But the Andaz credits ran: “Story and screenplay by Sachin Bhaumick / Dialogues by Gulzar”. Salim, Javed and Satish Bhatnagar were billed only as “Additional writers”. In Seeta Aur Geeta, Satish was credited with the story, and all three of them as screenplay and dialogue writers.

 

During the making of Andaz, however, a friendship with Rajesh Khanna developed. He cajoled Salim and Javed to write the screenplay for Haathi Mere Saathi, a remake of Devar’s Tamil film that he wanted to accept, though he was not happy about the script only to pay the final instalment for his bungalow. The duo was paid Rs. 10,000 and were officially billed as “Saleem-Javed”. The film became the first to earn a crore per territory (when the highest tickets were minus Rs. 5!) and Devar remade this remake in Tamil, which was a bigger hit than the original Tamil film!

 

It was then that Salim got the idea for Zanjeer and asked Javed to collaborate with him on it. The script was first offered to Dilip Kumar, who did not cherish the idea of essaying a psychologically-disturbed, taciturn cop. He later went on record to state that this was one of three movies he should have taken up—the others being Baiju Bawra and Pyaasa.

 

The next stop was Dharmendra, who was thrilled with the story and paid Salim Rs 2500 as a token signing amount. But he had family pressures, so Prakash Mehra (his director) bought the story and turned producer.

 

Pran, already on board as he had loved his character of Sher Khan, suggested Dev Anand’s name for the hero. Dev Anand listened to the story with rapt attention, embraced and escorted Salim out, and stated that if for any reason he did not accept our film, it did not mean that he found the script wanting, because it was a film that deserved to be made!

 

 

Zanjeer not only made their fortune but played a significant role in their reunion after their split in the 1980s when the film was remade in 2013. Prakash Mehra’s sons produced it but Salim-Javed held the rights. Salim-Javed had to be compensated when the sons lost the legal case. And this contretemps made them come back together.

 

Almost alongside Zanjeer, Salim-Javed gave the multi-star version of this storyline of revenge, with a blend of Waqt’s lost-and-found formula, to Nasir Husain, who made it with Dharmendra as Yaadon Ki Baraat. A super-hit in the same year as Zanjeer, it had the filmmaker grumbling that he never knew that a similar film was being made!

 

Yaadon Ki Baraat (dialogues by Nasir Husain), Chacha Bhatija (story by Prayag Raj) and Kranti (dialogues by Manoj Kumar) remain their only films with co-writers in their peak phase. Their only flops were Imaan Dharam and Zamana (1985), the latter after they split. Mr. India (1987) is their only script, updated by Javed, in which he also penned lyrics.

 

Aakhri Daao (1975) remains their only successful movie that did not complete 25 weeks.

 

Similarly, Marigold is the only film that stars Salman Khan and has lyrics by Javed Akhtar. “I can do a film only if it is offered to me!” quipped Javed about this.

 

Kaala Patthar, Shaan and Shakti lost out on the hit tag because of the pricing, as classically, only the return-on-investment ratio decided this.

 

Salim was also the first writer to sit in on the editing. “Most people then did not like this, but I failed to see why they were upset when we were ready to cut our own scenes in the interest of the film!” said the writer. “A good screenplay writer has to be a good editor, beginning with editing what is on paper.” Top director Raj Khosla even told them that he had never seen a script earlier with the words ‘The End’ in his entire career when he made Dostana.

 

 

When eldest son Salman Khan became a successful star, Khan decided to stop writing completely. “I had begun distributing films, not just ours, since Don. With Salman becoming successful, I had to divert a lot of time to manage his money matters. Later, Arbaaz and Sohail also entered the industry. I found that I was not getting the three months I needed in isolation for a script,” he said.

 

About Salman, he added, “I have a wonderfully healthy and friendly relationship with my children, though with Salman I have to respect his huge standing and tweak my paternal approach to him while remaining an objective father.”

 

Javed, solo, found success with Betaab, Arjun, Meri Jung and Saagar, while Salim wrote Naam and Akayla that made money. But Javed also became involved with the vital issues of writers’ (including lyricists and composers)’s intellectual property rights, and thanks to his efforts, the Copyright Amendment Act was unanimously passed in 2012 in Parliament.

 

During their split, the clinical, open-hearted and generous Salim raved about Farhan Akhtar’s debut, Dil Chahta Hai (2001) as writer-director and had sent him one of his own trophies as a gift. Farhan, in turn, still has a wish-list of making a film with Salman.

 

At the trailer launch of their documentary, Salim and Javed have expressed their desire to co-write “one last script”. But as of now, their last unofficial “partnership” happened with Baghban (2003)! Amitabh Bachchan requested Javed Akhtar to write his final speech in the film’s climax. Salman Khan, for his speech prior to that, approached his father Salim Khan to write his speech. But neither was credited in this Dr. Achala Nagar-penned subject!

 

Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers studio remade Deewaar as The Brothers (1979) , while screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, who wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award-winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008) with influences clearly seen, is said to have studied Salim-Javed’s cinema minutely. And V. Vijayendra Prasad, father to S.S. Rajamouli, who wrote the story of Salman Khan’s co-production, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, openly admits the influence of Salim-Javed in his writing.

 

Also Read: Angry Young Men: Salim-Javed open up on their married lives; Shabana Azmi says, “Honey Irani could have very easily filled Farhan, Zoya Akhtar with tales against me. She assured them I am not an evil stepmother”

Catch us for latest Bollywood News, New Bollywood Movies update, Box office collection,New Movies Release, Bollywood News Hindi, Entertainment News, Bollywood News Today & upcoming movies 2024 and stay updated with latest hindi movies only on Bollywood Hungama.