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Salim-Javed became the first Hindi film writers who could be considered brands, and they are still boldface names, celebrities in their own right, chronicles Dinesh Raheja.
IMAGE: Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar in Angry Young Men. Photograph: Kind courtesy Amazon Prime Video
While the Hindi film industry pays lip service to the importance of writers, only a few cineastes are familiar with the names of the award-winning story-writers of classic films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Personal branding may be considered modern marketing jargon but renowned screenwriting duo Salim-Javed perfected this technique 50 years ago.
The duo were the true pathbreakers: They became the first Hindi film writers who could be considered brands, and they are still boldface names, celebrities in their own right.
Salim-Javed broke into prominence after writing a spate of action-packed blockbusters in the 1970s (Zanjeer, Deewaar, Sholay, Don) and shaping Amitabh Bachchan’s superstardom in the early years of his success. They built a public identity so strong that they were pioneering star writers; the first pen-pushers to have huge sums on their payment cheques.
IMAGE: Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra in Sholay.
It is a testament to Salim-Javed’s status as writers that neither of them ever veered towards direction; they were lionised as story spinners who could create impactful scenarios and embellish them with instantly quotable dialogue.
Consider these highly charged scenes created by the duo:
In Sholay, Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar), whose arms had been cut off earlier by dacoit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), finally wrecks revenge on him, screaming viscerally for all that he has lost: ‘Mujhe mere haath de de, Gabbar! (Give me my hands back, Gabbar!)’.
In Trishul, Sanjeev Kumar confronts the man (Amitabh Bachchan), who has destroyed his business but learns that he is his illegitimate son from a woman he had abandoned and is told ‘Aur aap mere najayaz baap hain (You are my illegitimate father)’.
IMAGE: Amitabh Bachchan in Deewaar.
In Deewaar, a criminal (Amitabh Bachchan) flaunts his worldly wealth and compares it with the paltry gains his police officer brother (Shashi Kapoor) has earned from following the path of virtue. Only to be blindsided when the brother righteously retorts: ‘Mere paas maa hain‘ (Our mother is on my side)’.
Ironically, the authors behind Deewaar, a seminal film on the mother-son relationship, both lost their own mothers in childhood.
Both Salim (born 1935) and Javed (born 1945) also spent their early years in central Indian towns.
Salim Khan’s youthful good looks prompted him to move from Indore to Bombay to try his luck as an actor in the early 1960s.
The voracious reader appeared in several films, largely in peripheral roles but played the lead in Bachpan (1963) which had the glittering Rafi gem Mujhe Tumse Mohabbat Hai composed by Anu Malik’s father Sardar Malik.
IMAGE: Hema Malini and Shammi Kapoor in Seeta Aur Geeta.
Javed Akhtar came from a family of poets (father Jan Nissar Akhtar was a Bollywood lyricist), so it was only natural that he moved from Bhopal to Bombay when he was barely 19.
Hard up for money, he slept in parks and studio compounds till he started doing the odd writing assignment for films.
One such film was the swashbuckler Sarhadi Lootera during the shooting of which he befriended Salim Khan, an actor then.
The two were raring to reverse their languishing professional fortunes, and decided to team up.
Their first major breakthrough came with the Shammi Kapoor-Hema Malini drama Andaaz (1971) though they were only credited for additional script work as part of the Sippy Films story department.
The film was directed by Ramesh Sippy with whom they later collaborated on Seeta Aur Geeta, Shaan, Shakti and most famously Sholay.
Word spread fast about Salim-Javed’s way with words and they were pencilled in to author the screenplay of the Rajesh Khanna blockbuster Haathi Mere Saathi (1971).
IMAGE: Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan in Zanjeer.
What quickly made these cultural arrivistes a force to reckon with was when they took charge of all three writing departments — story, screenplay and dialogue — in Zanjeer (1973) and the film proved a tremendous crowd-pleaser.
The film’s hero Amitabh Bachchan had hitherto been dismissed as a flop and Director Prakash Mehra had only enjoyed mid-level success previously so Salim-Javed cornered a significant portion of the credit.
And the marketing savvy jodi made sure of this by fighting against the norm and personally ensuring their names were splashed on the film’s posters.
This achievement was amplified further when they scored two through-the-roof megahits in 1975 with Yash Chopra’s Deewaar and Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay.
These three films proved to be disruptors, decisively changing the cinematic tide from Rajesh Khanna romances to Amitabh Bachchan actioners.
IMAGE: Amitabh Bachchan in the Khaike Paan Benaraswala song from Don.
Salim-Javed became famous as the architects of Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Angry Young Man’ persona.
Their films showcased the star as a brooding loner whose silences are only broken by a laconic quip or a barbed rejoinder.
The contemporaneous socio-economic factors in the still young nation favoured the rise of a heroic figure who could fight against huge odds and emerge triumphant.
Salim-Javed continued projecting Amitabh in this light with Trishul (1978) and Kaala Patthar (1979) but when outside films like Amar Akbar Anthony added a lighthearted aspect to his personality, they too incorporated it in their films like Don (1978) which had the actor dancing joyously to Khaike Paan Benaraswala.
Besides action, another characteristic of Salim-Javed’s creations was their pivoting around a thirst for revenge as evidenced in Zanjeer, Yaadon Ki Baraat, Sholay and Trishul. They created grandiosely named megavillains for their heroes to combat: Tejaa (Zanjeer), Gabbar Singh (Sholay), Shakaal (Shaan) and Mogambo (Mr India).
IMAGE: Salim-Javed at the Angry Young Men trailer launch. Photograph: Kind courtesy Prime Video In/Instagram
Salim-Javed’s scripts were unabashedly male-oriented (Basanti in Sholay is a rare memorable female creation) and most had multiple heroes headlining the cast.
Ironically, their two-hero films celebrated male bonding and strength in unity but they themselves seem to forget that lesson.
In the early ’80s, ego clashes resulted in a long imminent split. It spelt curtains for their long string of successes with only the occasional misstep like Imaan Dharam. It was truly the end of an era.
Individually, neither could thereafter scale their earlier heights as screenwriters.
Javed made a successful start with Betaab (1983) but subsequent setbacks saw him flourish as a lyricist instead.
Similarly, Salim too made a solo with Naam (1986) before a series of disappointments and advancing age convinced him to rest on his laurels.
They also entered into second marriages with well-known actresses, Helen and Shabana respectively.
Today, the baton may well have been passed onto the next generation — Salim’s son Salman is a major film star and Javed’s children Farhan and Zoya are successful film-makers — but in their halcyon days, Salim-Javed could well be credited with linking guns and prose together in the creation of superior cinema.
