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SALIM-JAVED NEWS

Dharmendra bought Zanjeer from Salim Khan for Rs 2,500; had to quit after family member made him take a vow: 'You'll see my dead body'

November 12, 2025 1:10 pm

Dharmendra was the first actor to bet on the idea of Zanjeer, and actually bought it for Rs 2,500. The film later changed the trajectory of Amitabh Bachchan's career.

Ramesh Sippy told Asrani to take inspiration from Hitler for his role in Sholay: 'He’s a foolish character...'

August 15, 2025 7:02 pm

Asrani recalls that while offering him the role of the jailer in Sholay, director Ramesh Sippy referenced the personality of Hitler as a creative cue to shape the eccentric character.

50 years of Sholay: Evolution of heroines in Bollywood.

50 years of Sholay: Mausi, Radha, Basanti and the stalled progress of the Hindi film heroine

August 14, 2025 8:16 am

Fifty years after Sholay, Bollywood’s heroines have traded depth for designer wardrobes. Basanti could drive a tonga, but today’s women in cinema still can’t drive the plot.

Sholay turns 50: Thakur’s consuming obsession with vengeance destroyed so much and yielded so little

August 13, 2025 8:04 am

Sholay, to me, is not the towering epic it became in the history of cinema. It is the film that breathed in the spaces between the spectacle, where all there was, was grief.

'Gave a hit with a super-duper flop actor Amitabh Bachchan': Javed Akhtar says he, Salim Khan had no work for 9 months after delivering 4 hits

July 15, 2025 1:45 pm

Javed Akhtar revealed that despite delivering back-to-back hits, he and Salim Khan went without work for nine months because they demanded a fee they rightfully deserved, one that was well above the industry's standard at the time.

Javed Akhtar had 'massive ego', was dismissive and patronising towards first wife Honey Irani: 'Tum nahi samjhogi'

June 14, 2025 8:53 am

Honey Irani recalls trying to make Javed Akhtar aware of his overwhelming ego during their time together, but he rarely took her seriously.

Revisiting Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan’s Nayakan, not as a gangster epic, but as an existential melodrama in disguise

June 03, 2025 7:59 am

Nayakan is not Tamil cinema’s The Godfather or Yash Chopra’s Deewaar. Those comparisons are perfunctory. At its heart, it is an existential quest of a man.

Salim-Javed conceived the idea of Mr India for Amitabh Bachchan

Mr India was originally conceived for Amitabh Bachchan before Salim-Javed's split, Javed Akhtar reveals: 'I developed it completely on my own'

May 10, 2025 10:22 am

Javed Akhtar reveals there were initially no takers for Mr. India, as people believed films like these were mere gimmicks that don’t work at the box office.

'Amitabh Bachchan's dialogues by Salim-Javed inspired people during Emergency,' Akhilendra Mishra recalls noticing 'visible change' in youngsters

April 05, 2025 1:40 pm

Actor Akhilendra Mishra spoke about the impact Amitabh Bachchan and Salim-Javed had on his generation during the Emergency.

Sahir Ludhianvi was the rebel before Bollywood understood rebellion.

Sahir Ludhianvi, the original rebel who shook Bollywood: Demanded one rupee more than composer, but never cared about money

March 08, 2025 9:04 am

On Sahir Ludhianvi's birth anniversary, recalling the time when he demanded more pay than the music composer just so his profession could get the respect it deserved.