Pathaan dialogue writer talks about that Shah Rukh Khan-Salman Khan scene: ‘No matter how good friends they are…’

He added, “They are both the biggest stars of the country and both have their own points of view and no matter how good friends they are, when they come on screen together, both are aware as to what line is the other guy speaking, what line am I speaking, if I say this… So what happens in such cases is that the actor wants to contribute his ideas, he knows what he can do well, he knows what he cans ay well.”

Abbas said that a star like Salman sometimes has his own inputs in terms of how he can deliver his dialogues, or if he can change a joke but then it is up to the writers and director to see if they can convince him, if the joke does not belong to the universe of the film. “Salman will say ‘if I say my line like this, or I deliver a joke like this’. Now I know that this is an inside joke that only those belonging to the film industry will understand, may be the audience won’t. So he has to be convinced that let’s not crack industry jokes,” he said.

But the writer admitted that if a star has made up their mind, no matter what you write, they will say what they want to say. “After a certain point, if a star like Shah Rukh or Salman has made up their mind that they want to say a certain dialogue a certain way, then you can write or rewrite 50 drafts, they will say what they want. After a point, you have to indulge them,” he said.

Abbas acknowledged that a film like Pathaan is a “vehicle to celebrate Shah Rukh’s stardom” and a “movie of this size is servicing the stardom of the actor.” He added that here, the film is riding on Shah Rukh’s stardom but in movies like Chak De India or Swades, which are more character based projects, the actor sticks to the director’s vision and script