Written by Salim-Javed: The Story of Hindi Cinema’s Greatest Screenwriters

by Diptakirti Chaudhuri

  With recent changes in the Copyright Act, the FWA has made it mandatory for writers to receive a percentage of the film’s profits. While the exact percentage is open to negotiation, this is nevertheless an important step that secures royalty from a film’s earnings for the writer. Interestingly, one film production house had started sharing profits with their writers much before the FWA stipulated it. This production house is Excel Entertainment Limited, owned by one Ritesh Sidhwani and one Farhan Akhtar.

  The Dynasties of Salim–Javed

  Salim’s Family

  Salman Khan was born in 1965, when Salim was still a struggling actor and had just made the decision to take up writing. To pursue this career choice, he had cut down on his acting assignments, which affected his earnings. In fact, all his children were born before any of Salim–Javed’s successes released and their initial years were not easy. Despite their initial hardships, the family has always had a streak of altruism that has recently come into the limelight with Salman’s charity, Being Human, but really has been there right from the beginning. Salman was always the boy who brought home hungry friends and supported many people unconditionally. In fact, rumours suggest that Salim Khan’s youngest daughter Arpita was adopted after she was left destitute when her mother died on the roadside and the family brought her home.

  Salman entered showbiz without his father’s backing and started off as a model in his early twenties. He appeared in a few advertisements for brands like Limca and Smash T-shirts (both very popular in the 1980s).

  There is a hilarious story about how Salim Khan’s son inherited his father’s confidence and swagger—much before he became a superstar. Salman Khan remembers meeting Govinda when the latter had just started to make a mark in films (and Salman hadn’t even begun acting, having only done some modelling assignments). As Govinda passed him in a studio, Salman gave a thumbs up and drawled, ‘Hey man, doing good work!’ Govinda, still with a struggler’s mindset, did a grateful namaste and mumbled thanks many times. Salman says this incident gave him a lesson in humility.

  He became friendly with Kumar Gaurav and Sanjay Dutt (who were working in films written by his father) and often recounts stories of their generosity that helped him a lot in his early days. He says he tries to pay it forward with today’s youngsters.

  He debuted with a small role in Biwi Ho To Aisi starring Rekha. However, his very next film—Maine Pyar Kiya—was a career-defining one that established him as a major star and a youngster with promise. His career meandered in the late 1990s and early 2000s but his recent decade as a star has been phenomenal because he has become that darling of the masses whose on-screen antics cannot go wrong. In 2009, he acted in Wanted—a typical over-the-top remake of a south Indian film—and he entered a record-breaking zone where he has had only two flops (Veer49 and Main Aurr Mrs Khanna) while most of his films did mind-boggling business.

  Incidentally, Salman also wrote the story for Veer. He had come up with the idea nearly twenty years earlier, though it was not a particularly novel plot. If the plot was indeed written in the early 1990s, it would coincide with two other films—Baaghi (1990) and Chandramukhi (1993)—for whose ‘story idea’ Salman received credit. This seems to have been a particularly fertile period for Salman, coinciding with the time when Salim Khan was also writing.

  However, Salman’s personal life was fraught with major romantic issues (including some acrimonious and high-profile break-ups) as well as legal tangles. He has been indicted in one case of killing protected animals near Jodhpur (during the shooting of Hum Saath Saath Hain) and in another case of alleged drunk driving where his SUV ran over and killed a person and injured others (in September 2002).

  Arbaaz and Sohail’s acting careers have not been particularly flourishing. They have often co-starred with Salman in hit films and have also done roles without him or with external producers, with varying degrees of success. Arbaaz has done relatively well as the handsome but ruthless villain (Daraar, Qayamat, Kuch Naa Kaho, Fashion) while Sohail has often been seen in roles that portray him as a lovable goon (I Proud to Be an Indian, Fight Club, Salaam-e-Ishq, Heroes).

  The brothers have now branched into production, with Sohail co-producing many of Salman’s films since 1998 (he started with Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, starring both his brothers). He has produced and starred in smaller films without Salman as well (Fight Club, I Proud To Be An Indian etc). Sohail has also directed many Salman-starrers that he produced—breezy love stories (Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Hello Brother) as well as action thrillers (Auzaar, Jai Ho).

  Arbaaz became a producer with Dabangg and became a director–producer with Dabangg 2. He is now trying out his hand at films that star no members of his family but seem to be a good commercial proposition, well produced and well promoted.

  While Salman has been an exceedingly successful star, and both Arbaaz and Sohail have found success in production, they still seem to be quite in awe of their father—maybe even a bit scared. The three brothers have often claimed that they involuntarily stand up when they receive a call from him. Salim Khan, on the other hand, says that his advice is often lost on his sons. ‘I used to be a voracious reader and always advise people to do so. But with my sons, I see that even the newspapers don’t get picked up from their doorsteps for days on end,’ he sighs exaggeratedly.

  Salim has always been the true patriarch, keeping his flock together and united. Salman Khan, despite being India’s top star, still lives in a flat above his father’s in Galaxy Apartments—which has been their family home ever since they moved in in October 1973 (on the day of Dussehra). Salim claims to be an advisor to his three sons, while feigning a bit of exasperation because all their calls seem to come at 11 p.m. He is an informal script advisor though he refuses to take any official credit and dismisses all questions saying it is up to the director to decide if his suggestions have any value.

  Salim’s second marriage to Helen, the legendary dancer of Hindi cinema, was conducted with a dignity that managed to control the gossip and acrimony that is the usual fallout. Salim and Helen adopted a daughter—Arpita—and the two families have now coexisted quite happily for three decades now and routinely get together for family functions.

  Javed ’s Family

  One movie connection Zoya Akhtar obviously cherishes and has mentioned in several of her interviews is that she was born in the same year the Godfather was released (1972). She remembers seeing it first when she was about nine or ten years old; the film was projected on the wall of their Juhu flat. Her mother Honey Irani had a movie projector and used to get prints from theatre owners (many of whom she knew very well) to watch them on a ‘big screen’ at home. Zoya says that she didn’t understand it very well the first time and remembers shielding her eyes in some scenes that she found very violent.

  Born in October 1972, Zoya has lived in Mumbai—studying in Maneckji Cooper school and St Xavier’s College—her entire life, except for a brief stint in New York University Film School to study film-making. She says, ‘The writer in me is very strong. I feel whether I direct my next film or not, that will not majorly affect my life. But no matter where I am, I can’t stop writing. In school, I would always score the highest on essays. Since school, I was told that I can write.’ Her mother Honey joined FTII Pune for a course when Zoya was still in school and many of her weekends were spent there, in an environment steeped in cinema.

  Like most star kids, Zoya also started off in supporting roles—both behind and in front of the camera. Zoya recalls, ‘I did a lot of jobs as an AD [assistant director] and as a PA [production assistant]. As a casting director, I cast extras. As an AD, you work with extras a lot. I was an executive producer. I’ve done a lot of jobs and I think each one helps you get closer to what you want as a director. It also helps you—when you work with different film-makers—to absorb, to adapt, to know what to watch out for, to know pitfalls.’ One of her most unusual roles was in Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra (a film she was casting junior artistes in
), where she played one of the girls being trained by Rekha in the fine art of seduction. She was the first AD in brother Farhan’s first two films, which happened before she got a chance to direct.

  She cut her cinematic teeth in these assignments before she started pitching her first script for financing. Called Kismet Talkies, it was to star Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor but it never got made, which was attributed to a variety of factors ranging from non-availability of the actors’ dates to acceptance of the script by producers. Eventually, Zoya made her debut with Luck by Chance, which was produced by brother Farhan’s company—Excel Entertainment. While Kismet Talkies was also written around the film industry, Luck by Chance was a completely different script and turned out to be an incredibly nuanced and balanced take on the crazy world of Hindi cinema.

  She sealed her spot as a top writer-director with her second feature film, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) as well as a short segment in Bombay Talkies. Her latest film, Dil Dhadakne Do, did well commercially and critically and further cemented Zoya’s position in the industry.

  As children, while Zoya was the more balanced sibling, Farhan—by all accounts—ran into all sorts of trouble. But if there was one thing that distinguished him from other children his age, it was his ‘vivid imagination’. ‘Or lies, as they were called then,’ he laughs. He specifically remembers an instance where he convinced his schoolmates that he would be coming to school in a helicopter, while sitting in the school bus with all of them. ‘It was the first time I realized people are easy to fool and there were many instances like this one,’ he says, though he’s not sure if that helped him become a writer.

  He was a bit of a drifter because he dropped out of college in his second year—something his father did not approve of as Javed considered graduation an important milestone in one’s life. Farhan was crazy about cinema too and watched films by the dozen, to the point that his mother threatened to throw him out of the house. When he considered getting a job, he chose the field of photography and film-making, things he was most interested in. He borrowed cameras and lenses from well-known cinematographer Baba Azmi (Shabana Azmi’s brother) and went around shooting, using his friends as models. He also worked as an assistant to cameramen in films like Lamhe (which his mother wrote) and Himalay Putra (which was the debut vehicle of Akshaye Khanna). This was a fairly long period of drifting (nearly all of the 1990s) when he was trying to get a foothold in the industry. He says that he had no clear idea of what he wanted to become but after observing all aspects of film-making, he decided that the director’s role was something worth pursuing.

  Finally, he ended up writing the script of Dil Chahta Hai and asked his childhood friend Ritesh Sidhwani to read it, primarily because the film had many aspects of friendship they were both familiar with. Ritesh—whose family was in the kitchen appliances business—was keen to try out something different. ‘That script sealed my decision in terms of what I wanted to do next in life,’ Ritesh says. They pitched the script to Aamir Khan, though Farhan initially wanted him to do the role Akshaye Khanna eventually played. Aamir Khan was impressed enough with the script, the associated detailing of the characters’ looks and motivations and the director’s vision to say yes, and Excel Entertainments got off to a blockbuster opening.

  Farhan has borrowed quite heavily from his own life for his films, at least in the first two. He recalls being emotionally dependent on his friends after his parents’ divorce and formed very strong bonds with them, some of whom have become fodder for his films. The characters of Dil Chahta Hai were a combination of three or four such friends and bits of himself. His own lack of focus about careers and a profession was something that he depicted in the first part of Lakshya.

  Farhan calls himself a ‘director who can act’ though his huge popularity as an actor50 has put the brakes on his directing career. While his production house continues to churn out films—on all of which he has a say—he has directed just four films till now. The second one, Lakshya, was written by Javed Akhtar while the next (Don) was a remake of a Salim–Javed script and his fourth film (Don 2) was a sequel to the third.

  While Javed Akhtar’s influence on both his children is obvious, it would be apt to look at Honey Irani’s career as well. She started off as a child actor and later graduated to small supporting roles as an adult. She stopped acting after she married in 1972 (and became a mother soon after). While married, she enrolled in a course with FTII and was an assistant director to Ramesh Talwar in films like Duniya and Sawaal (both in the early 1980s).

  She says that she always wanted to write and tried her hand at short stories but was shy of sharing them because she thought her works would be dismissed as Javed’s writing. After her divorce came through in 1984 (though they separated in 1978), she got over her diffidence and briefly outlined a story idea to Pamela Chopra (Yash Chopra’s wife) for what she thought would be a TV serial. That script went on to become Aaina (starring Jackie Shroff, Juhi Chawla and Amrita Singh), which Yash Chopra loved. But before Aaina was completed, she wrote the film that would make her a writing star—Lamhe. While the movie was a commercial disaster, it became a cult classic for its very unusual plot and Honey Irani went on to write several blockbusters like Darr, Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai and Koi Mil Gaya. In-between, she had a somewhat acrimonious separation with Yash Chopra’s house because of a controversy around Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge where she claimed that she had been denied credit for the story and screenplay of the film. While her maiden directorial venture—Armaan—did not do well, Honey Irani continues to write, having co-written screenplays for Krrish and Krrish 3 in recent times.

  As a single mother who took the break-up of her marriage with grace and dignity, Honey Irani’s influence on her children has been substantial.

  Javed’s second marriage to Shabana Azmi has been cordial for all concerned. Shabana calls Javed a friend first and says their friendship is so strong that even a marriage could not ruin it. She has also been supportive of Javed’s relationship with his children, both of who spent significant periods with their father while they were growing up.

  Common Threads

  There are some interesting similarities between the ways in which the film careers of Salim–Javed’s children began.

  For starters, none of them had the benefit of their fathers’ contacts and recommendations. Turning away from the sifarish that they so often ridiculed in their films, both Salim and Javed ensured that their children charted their own course. Apparently, in order to pitch his first script, Farhan Akhtar sought an appointment with Aamir Khan without using his father’s name, which impressed Aamir a lot. Though the lyrics for Dil Chahta Hai were written by Javed Akhtar, the script was written completely by Farhan and in a manner and sensibility that was far removed from his father’s. His second film was based on a script written by Javed Akhtar, though—again—the mood and milieu were very modern. Likewise, Salman tried his luck and hit jackpot with his second film—Maine Pyar Kiya. One of his earlier films—Patthar Ke Phool—was based on a Salim Khan script but by then, Salman had established himself as one of the leading new-age romantic heroes. In fact, Salim Khan attributes his retirement timing at least partially to Salman being in films. ‘When I pitched scripts to producers when my sons were working, I felt they would be wondering why is he not making the film with his son if it is so good?’ he says. ‘There is a big problem if I write scripts for Salman. The film becomes his if it is a hit and daddy’s, if it is a flop.’

  Both Salim and Javed have played an advisory role in their children’s careers and films, without interfering beyond a point. This restraint is commendable because—in a way—the children are working in an industry in which their fathers were masters, and yet Salim and Javed supported their efforts only by way of offering help in technical capacities and in credited departments alone.

  The script of Luck by Chance was written by Zoya and Javed wrote the dialogue. Zoya says, ‘I wrote the English draft and my father wrote the Hindi
dialogue. There are certain scenes he’s translated. But there are certain scenes he has taken and twisted and translated and moved it to another level. A lot of [the scenes with] Rishi Kapoor and the entire acting class. That was all him. He knows these people . . . I don’t have a one-on-one experience with them. He does. He just layered that [scene] perfectly for me.’

  Javed Akhtar has written lyrics for all the films Farhan has produced, including Rock On! which, as film critic Mayank Shekhar puts it, means ‘the Urdu-Awadhi poet, quite uncharacteristically one would imagine, [would have] managed to pen the words “Mary Jane ka ek packet”, referring to marijuana joints in the track “Pichle saat dino mein”’. Javed later told Mayank that the expression was Farhan’s idea.

  Film dynasties have, by and large, been associated with grand old surnames like Chopra (B.R. and Yash), Kapoor (Prithviraj) and, more recently, Bachchan. Salim–Javed’s families are not one dynasty and yet they have managed to churn out an unbelievably diverse range of films. Salman Khan has obviously been the commercial giant, with an incredible number of films in the top grossers of Bollywood. Farhan and Zoya, on the other hand, have gained a lot of critical acclaim built on the base of commercial success and not art-house recognition. They have won Filmfare Awards for writing (Farhan for Dil Chahta Hai’s screenplay and ZNMD’s dialogues), direction (Zoya for ZNMD), acting (Farhan for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag) and producing (ZNMD again). If we add the prizes Javed and Honey have won—five for lyrics and two for story/screenplay respectively51—then we have a creative powerhouse that is also commercially successful (Don 2 is among India’s top-grossing films.)