Salim-Javed parted ways in 1982. While Salim Khan continued his path of writing scripts, Javed Akhtar went on to balance a career of writing scripts and lyrics. However, a new revelation has surfaced claiming Javed Akhtar began his solo career while he was still in a partnership with Salim Khan. Filmmaker Ramesh Talwar, known for assisting Yash Chopra in from 1969 to 1979 and directing films such as Doosra Aadmi and Sahibaan, recalled that Salim-Javed were in a legal battle with Yash Johar over Dostana. Despite the legal battle, Javed offered to write a film alone for Johar.
Speaking with The Times of India, Ramesh Talwar recalled Javed Akhtar suddenly decided to reduce his fee by half to work solo. This decision brought him to the Yash Johar’s doorstep. Coincidentally, it was around the same time that Yash and Salim-Javed had a legal battle going on with regard to Dostana.
“Amitabh Bachchan had raised his fees to 25 lakhs. So, Salim-Javed raised their price to 21 lakhs. Nobody was willing to pay them 21 lakhs. Whenever someone asked to negotiate their price, they would tell them not to work with them. They had become arrogant. Then Javed Sahab reduced his price by half. I think he used to take 10-11 lakhs at that time. He reduced it by half and also agreed to write lyrics as well. They also had an ongoing court case of Dostana with Yash Johar at that time,” he said.
“But Yash Johar thought that he was getting Javed Akhtar of Salim-Javed so he asked me to arrange a meeting with Javed Sahab. I told him that I would arrange a meeting but I would not sit in the meeting and that they should deal with each other directly. So, I don’t know what happened in that meeting but things worked out for both,” the filmmaker added.
Eventually, Salim and Javed parted ways and began getting work individually. More and more people from the industry began working with Javed Akhtar. Dharmendra had asked Javed to help in Sunny Deol’s launch. He also wrote Dilip Kumar’s Duniya, and Yash Chopra’s Mashaal.
“Actor Jeetendra had dates of Sridevi. I asked Salim Sahab whether he had a story. Javed Sahab had already signed Duniya alone. Salim Sahab didn’t have the complete story but he narrated it to me whatever he had ready. The film didn’t materialize. I was making Sahibaan. The film’s producer D. K. Chawla told me that he wanted to work with Salim Khan and wanted to cast his son Salman Khan as the hero. Again, I told him that I’d arrange a meeting but wouldn’t be part of it. After the meeting, Salim Sahab told me that the meeting was successful and was ready to do the film. But the producer Chawla passed away on the day of negative cutting. So, I couldn’t work with Salim Sahab alone. I worked with Javed Sahab. I directed Zamana (1985) which they co-wrote as Salim-Javed. They sat on the final edit of Zamana too. Because Duniya was already done, Salim Sahab thought that I had a role to play in the split,” the director recalled.
In the recently released docu-series, Angry Young Men, Salim-Javed said that despite the split, they were coordial with each other. Salman Khan, who appeared in the series, admitted Salim was heartbroken by the split but the families continued to stay friends.
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