Javed Akhtar says he and Salim Khan ‘never fought over credits or money’, opens up about split: ‘Partnerships in cement factory are easier’

In an interview with Barkha Dutt for Mojo Story, Javed Akhtar opened up about the reason for the split, saying writing partnerships are often difficult to sustain as they depend on a strong mental rapport– which he and Salim Khan once had. “Partnership in a cement factory is easier, because you know what is the cost of making cement, the price in the market, and if you are decent people you can have formal relations with your partner, and the business will continue. On the contrary, partnership in writing is another ball game. You don’t have a scale or a weighing machine where you can put a scene and decide its weight, it is only a matter of feeling. You have to have tremendous mental rapport to take a scene and develop it mutually and reach the conclusion that this is the final thing and it is good. As long as you have that tremendous mental rapport you people can work together. The moment that rapport is broken or weakened, you can’t work together.”

When asked how their rapport broke, Akhtar said the two naturally drifted apart from each other when they became successful, and more people entered their lives. There was never a fight, Akhtar said, or even a tussle over credit or money.

“When we began, both of us were nobodies, we only had each other. So, we would spend a lot of time together, sit by the sea, talk about stories. He would come to my room, I had one paying guest room, or I would go to his house, which was a small one. But when you become bigger, more successful, many more people enter your life. Then all those desires which were dormant, all those interests which were dormant… The moment you have done something which was the main issue of your life or the main interest, you reach a satisfactory position and then all the other interests start emerging.

“So, you start meeting different kind of people and then gradually you become different people and that is what happened. We did not fight, there was no issue about credit, there was never any issue about money, there was nothing. We just grew apart. One realised that relationship is no longer there, that we now don’t sit together in the evening, we have our own set of friends. Gradually that happened and the rapport weakened, and it was reflecting on our work also,” he added.

In an old interview to Etc, Salim Khan had opened up about the split and said their equation also came with an “expiry date” and recalled the evening when he learnt that Akhtar wanted to part ways.

“We were near Javed’s house one evening when Javed told me he wanted to split, that he’d been thinking about it for some time now. I got up, shook hands with him and started walking towards my car. He also started to walk with me, but I held him, turned him towards his house and said, ‘I can look after myself.’ I came back home and didn’t tell anyone about it. The next evening, calls started coming in asking about the split. I asked Javed whether he told anyone, he said only a few friends knew. It was only after a few days that I announced the split,” Khan had said

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