Whenever there is talk of Hindi cinema writers, the Salim-Javed pair will be counted among the most successful pairs. Both of them worked together on the stories of about 24 films including the blockbuster film ‘Sholay’. Because of this pairing, writers also started getting recognition in the cinematic world. But now these two giants are not each other’s ‘friends’. And there can be no better opportunity than this to explore the history of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. Lyricist, screenwriter, and poet Javed Akhtar turned 79 today. Today, on his birthday, let us try to remove the dust from this important page of his life.

Birthday Boy Javed Akhtar’s early life

For the unversed, Javed Akhtar was born on 17 January 1945 in Gwalior. His father John Nisar Akhtar was a well-known poet and his mother Safia Akhtar was a singer. At the time of birth, Nisar Akhtar had named Javed as ‘Jadu’. The veteran has been married twice. His first marriage was with screenwriter Honey Irani. Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar are the children of Honey and Javed. But later, while learning poetry at Kaifi Azmi’s house, Javed fell in love with his daughter Shabana Azmi. They were married, so when the wife came to know about it, she asked for a separation. Later in the year 1984, Javed and Shabana married each other.

The iconic Salim-Javed pair!

When the Salim-Javed duo was formed, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar worked together for almost 12 years. Although the films written by them continued to be made till later, the duo remained together only between 1970 and 1982. In this short period, the Salim-Javed duo wrote dialogues and scripts for 24 films, out of which 20 proved to be superhits. Among all these hits, Sholay is also included, which people remember even today.

It is said that Salim-Javed met for the first time in the year 1966 during the shooting of the film Sarhadi Lootera. At that time Salim Khan was an actor and Javed was the ‘clapper boy’ i.e. the director’s assistant. After a few days, Javed started working as a dialogue writer. Gradually Salim-Javed met and then decided to work together. According to Salim Khan, Javed had come to him and expressed his desire to work with him.

Both of them worked together from 1970 to 1982. During this period he worked in ‘Andaz’, ‘Adhikaar’, ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’, ‘Sita Aur Geeta’, ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Yaadon Ki Baaraat’, ‘Sholay’, ‘Deewar’, ‘Iman Dharam’, ‘Don’, Wrote scripts, dialogues and screenplays for superhit films like ‘Dostana’, ‘Kranti’, ‘Zamaana’ and ‘Mr. India’.

How did Salim-Javed separate?

The stories of both Salim and Javed on their separation are almost similar, but the way of presenting the story is slightly different. When Javed Akhtar mentioned his separation from Salim Sahab in an interview, he said that they both had a lot of faith in each other. “We both understood each other also. But gradually we started moving away from each other mentally,” said Javed Sahab. He said that the rapport between them was no longer the same as it used to be. According to Javed Akhtar, there was never any fight between him and Salim Khan.

“Every box has an expiry date, perhaps this one too had an expiry date,” Salim Khan

In the interview, Salim Khan recalled the day when Javed talked about separation from him. He described that day like this, “One day I was working in the evening. He (Javed) told me that ‘I wanted to separate’. So I really felt that I didn’t listen properly. He said that ‘I want to do different work’. I told him that he would not have thought of this five minutes ago. So he said that he had been thinking for some time. I got up, shook hands, and went towards my car which was parked outside. He started coming to the car. Then I turned my car towards the house and said, ‘I can take care of myself’,” said Salim Khan.

‘Aisi Zanjeer se bandhe hain, jisme alag hone mushkil hai’, Javed Akhtar

After years, when Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar were seen together on the same stage, everyone was surprised. This was the occasion of the trailer launch of ‘Sholay 3D’. During this, in response to a question, Javed Akhtar said, “We are tied with such a chain that it is very difficult to get separated. We have millions of reasons to stay together.” 

“Nothing is impossible in this world,”  Javed Akhtar said with pride when someone asked about working together for a Bollywood film. 

Happy 79th Birthday Javed Sahab!