Salim-Javed wrote for Baghban without credit, recalls Renu Chopra: ‘Javed wrote Amitabh Bachchan’s lines in climax, Salim wrote for Salman Khan’

Salim-Javed, who separated as writing partners in the 1980s, wrote parts of Baghban and refused to take credit.

New Delhi | February 27, 2025 10:39 AM IST

3 min read

Javed Akhtar talks about splitting up with Salim Khan. (Photo: Express Archives)

Screenwriter duo Salim-Javed, who wrote hits like Deewaar and Sholay in the 1970s, have always been regarded as one of the most respected icons in the Indian film industry. The duo fell apart and went their separate ways and never wrote a film together again but, unbeknownst to many, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar worked on Ravi Chopra’s Baghban. The Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini-starrer film’s story was written by veteran filmmaker BR Chopra with dialogues by Achala Nagar, but the film’s climax, where Bachchan’s character delivers a long emotional speech about raising kids, was written by Javed Akhtar. Salim Khan wrote the dialogues for Salman Khan’s character in the film.

Ravi Chopra’s wife Renu Chopra recently revealed these unknown details in a chat with Pinkvilla, that have been speculated for many years, and said that Javed requested that he must not be credited for his work in the film. She also said that this was, in a way, a Salim-Javed collaboration.

Renu recalled that the climax scene, where Amitabh’s character’s book receives an award and he opens up about giving it all to his children as a father, was 11 pages long. After reading it, Amitabh requested Ravi to give him three days and after three days, they were to shoot the scene at a hotel. Bachchan told the director to place as many cameras as he wanted because he knew that he won’t be able to replicate the emotions over and over again. So they placed three cameras and started shooting. Reni recalled, “Amit ji said, ‘Mere andar bhara hua hai (It’s all inside me, bursting to come out.)'”

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She then revealed that he climax was written by Javed Akhtar and shared, “He had never seen the film. He had just placed one condition that ‘you will not credit me for this’ but now, I want to credit him.” When asked why Javed refused any credit for this, Renu said, “He did it out of love. And he did not want to take away from the person who wrote the rest of the film.”

There have been rumours that Salim Khan wrote dialogues for Salman’s character in the film and Renu confirmed those rumours in this chat and said, “Salim saab said ‘I will write Salman’s dialogues’. So it was a Salim-Javed collaboration.”

Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar recently announced that they will get together for another film. At the trailer launch of their documentary Angry Young Men, Javed said, “We are going to write (the script) now. I have spoken to Salim, ek picture hum aur likh de (let us write one more film together). Uss zamane mein bhi humari price zyada thi, iss zamane mein toh bohot bhi zyada hogi. Woh dekh lijiyega (We used to charge a lot back then, we will charge even more now. Do consider that).”

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