The legendary writing duo, Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan have worked with the three biggest superstars of Indian cinema – Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan. Of the three legends, Javed Akhtar said Rajesh Khanna was the most difficult to work with as he was surrounded by ‘yes men’ all the time.
Speaking to the SAM YouTube channel, Javed Akhtar recalled, “Those were the times when a child born in India would say ‘Rajesh Khanna’ first and then ‘mumma, papa’. But it was a short period. There came a time when we realised that it would be difficult for us to work together. He was surrounded by so many people, so many sycophants and yes men, it was difficult to work with him.”
He continued, “So, we parted ways. We became friendly, and we did a film also much later. But the kind of films that we were writing, and the kind of films that we had in our mind, were much more suitable for an actor like Amitabh Bachchan.”
Salim-Javed collaborated with Amitabh Bachchan for several films, including superhits like Sholay, Don and Agneepath. The writers contributed significantly to Amitabh’s success and even established his ‘angry young man’ image. “He was not a superstar at that time, to say the least, but he was an unbelievably good actor. He was the man who we felt would be able to play our Vijay,” Javed said.
Javed Akhtar said, “If you’re working with actors like Amitabh Bachchan or Dilip Kumar, you know that you can put the weight on the actor, and the actor will carry it. Sometimes, when you feel that the actor has limited talent, you make the scene easier for him. But these actors could carry anything. Amitabh Bachchan, you give him any scene and he’ll do it with competence. You give him any line and he’ll make it natural…”
Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan wrote 24 films together and of those, 22 were hits. They were the most in-demand writing duo and even charged more fees than the leading actor. Their films include Haathi Mere Saathi, Andaz, Seeta aur Geeta and Kranti among others.
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