Javed Akhtar reveals what led to his break-up with Salim Khan: ‘Shuru mein jab hum nakaam log the…’

Javed recalled that their friendship flourished because they were living in close proximity to each other. “Agar shayad main kahin aur reh raha hota toh itni mulakat na hoti unse lekin ab paas mein mujhe mil gaya kamra toh main aksar chala jata tha. (If I was living elsewhere, we might have not met this often but my room was close by so I would often end up at his house),” he said.

Javed reminisced that they would sit by the sea for hours and this is where they started coming up with story ideas. It was around this time when they got their first writing gig as ghost writers, which paid them Rs 5000. “Humein toh laga lottery lag gayi, itna paisa toh aaj tak dekha nahi tha (We thought we hit jackpot, we had never seen this much money.)” Soon after this, they got a job at Sippy Films as writers and ended up working with Rajesh Khanna in Haathi Mere Saathi. “Ek din baith ke humne tay nahi kia ki kal se hum partners. Yeh gradually ho gaya. (We did not sit and decide that now we are partners. This just gradually happened.)

Javed also spoke about they how they parted ways after working together for 11 years. “Shuru mein jab hum nakaam log the, struggle kar rahe the, toh bilkul ek the. Koi humare aur dost nahi the, hum hi baith ke subah se shaam tak kaam karte the. Shaam ko bhi saath the, raat ko khana bhi saath hota tha. 24 mein se 15-16 hours toh saath hi hote the. (In our earlier unsuccessful days, we were struggling, we were one. We did not have any other friends, we would work together from morning to evening. We would even have dinner together. Out of 24, we would spend 15-16 hours together.)”

Javed said that when they became successful, their lives became bigger and separate. “Jab kaamyaabi aayi, toh naye naye log zindagi mein aana shuru ho gaye aur voh circle dheere dheere alag ho gaye. Toh voh mental rapport tha humara, voh toot gaya. Toh fir voh kaam nahi ho sakta tha. (When we became successful, new people came into our lives and our circles got separated. The mental rapport we had, that got broken. We could no longer work together.)