Salim-Javed changed the way people looked at screenwriters in India with their stunts like hiring painters to add their names to posters of Zanjeer, demanding more money than the stars of the films, and delivering multiple hits in a row. Together, the duo wrote about 20 films, which included iconic films such as Deewaar, Sholay, Trishul, Don among others. However, in 1982, the duo decided to part ways. Their split came with a lot of rumours as neither of addressed it at that time. Some rumours even suggested that it was perhaps Javed’s closeness with Amitabh Bachchan that caused tension between the writer duo and in a recent interview, Javed addressed the same.
Salim Khan is a little older than Javed Akhtar and while the two treated each other at par when it came to work, there was a certain sense of hierarchy in their social dealings. Javed said that he saw Salim and his wife Salma Khan in a parental role in his life, but more often that not, he was like an elder brother “who had the final say” in the relationship. In an interview with Mid-day, Javed Akhtar shared, “When we were sitting to write screenplays, we were equals. But, both of us come from a culture where we have inherited this ‘chote bade ka khayal’. He was elder than me, more experienced than me, so we did have that ‘chote bade ka rishta’. But, when we were working, we were working. We didn’t consider age gap when it came to work. Outside work, we followed what we inherited.”
Javed shared that after writing multiple hits, they parted ways in 1982. “We parted ways in 1982, the date was June 21. Salim saheb had come to my house. We had our conversation there,” he shared. He said that it was before their split that they conceived the idea of Mr India, however, Javed developed it on his own. He confessed that the idea was originally conceived for Amitabh Bachchan but since Javed’s rumoured closeness with the actor was seen as the reason behind their break-up, he refused to work with the actor for the next ten years.
“When we parted, situation changed. Due to my closeness to Amitabh Bachchan, a lot of people thought I have parted ways with Salim Khan because of my closeness with Amitabh. Due to these rumours, I didn’t do any films with Amitabh Bachchan for about 10 years. I had many offers, but I didn’t take up any because I didn’t want this tag on me that I broke this partnership because of some support. The first film I made with him after parting with Salim was Azaad,” he said.
