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01x02 - Episode 2

Episode transcripts for the TV show, "Angry Young Men". Aired: August 20, 2024.*
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A documentary telling the story behind the formidable writer duo Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar.

01x02 - Episode 2

Post by bunniefuu »

- You're ready to start?- Yeah.

Ashok!

Could you make me a soup?

[Interviewer] I'll show you a photograph

Whoa! That's my mom.

So that was the sh**t

we did with this

great photographer Vilas Bhende.

My mom's cousin's husband.

I and my dad looked

identical at the age

that you saw.

- We have some pictures

- 5 or 6 years old.

Then Salman at a much younger year

started looking like him in his early 20s.

So we've all started looking like him

at different stages in our lives.

But never wrote as well as

he did at any stage of our lives.

I'm enjoying the fruits of my sweat.

You earn with your sweat,

we earn with our beauty!

I enjoy the fruits

of my sweat and blood.

Since I moved to Bombay,

I've heard 50 different reasons

for making a film.

"My actress is planning to get pregnant.

My financer will disappear."

"I have recorded four songs."

Different reasons.

Nobody says I have a cracking script

on which I can bet my last shirt.

That should be the only reason

to make a film.

[Shabana Azmi] Anybody wants a pad

to write anything?

What's there to write?

It's a flawless piece.

How many times will you keep

writing "wow, great"?

Okay, let's start.

"The film starts with a dense jungle,

sound of different birds,

"as the camera pans,

at one place we see the bush

"is moving.

"And through the foliage we see"

You must've noticed - if you take

the same story or joke,

some people narrate it well,

others don't.

How do some people narrate well?

They stress on the right words.

They stretch it at the right places

to pique your curiosity and interest.

So the understanding of this rhythm -

where to pause,

where to speed up,

where to underline, where not to.

Where to take a narrative jump.

"And a few days later"

This method of narrating a story,

in an audio-visual format,

is what a screenplay is.

- Thakur saab?

- Welcome, Jailer saab.

I need two men.

This is Veeru,

and this is Jaidev.

Total rogues, the pair of them!

I know.

But they're just the kind

of men I need for this job.

This is the story of awards

and award-winners.

In 1975, two big films

competed head-on.

Sholay and Deewaar.

Today I have buildings, property,

bank balance, bungalow, cars

- What do you have?

- I have mother.

Don't dance for

these dogs, Basanti!

Both stories and screenplays

were written by Salim-Javed.

The amazing thing was

Salim-Javed won all

the awards for Deewaar:

Best Story, Best Dialogue,

Best Screenplay.

I remember

when I interviewed Javed saab,

he was saying how they

didn't get any awards for Sholay

because they got

it for Deewaar.

And he said:

"You should never do

too much good work in a year!"

But imagine -

writers who produce Sholay

and Deewaar in the same year.

I mean

Before starting a screenplay,

I do watch Deewaar and Sholay,

parts of it, I skip the songs,

but I see them.

Really view them.

So I think it's the genius of

the films that changed the game.

And you know, these were kids.

Now I'm twice their age

when they were writing this.

So I still think, how did

these kids do this?

All the films they wrote together,

they always gave me

bound scripts.

So that makes our job easier

and better. Good films get made.

To me, Deewaar is the best script

of their career.

And this film is among the most

important films of my career.

I can say one of the best

films of mine is Deewaar.

For many years at the

Film & Television Institute of India,

the Deewaar screenplay was

taught as a perfect screenplay

because it didn't have

anything extraneous,

except for probably the songs.

But everything else was connected.

I would go as far as saying,

if they had not

written any other film,

and had only written Deewaar,

they would still be in history.

People say that Deewaar

has a perfect screenplay.

We wrote it in eighteen days

from a small storyline.

We completed the entire screenplay

in eighteen days.

Then I wrote the dialogue

in about twenty days.

Once the script was completed,

we knew we hadn't cracked the cl*max.

So Javed and I completed it,

sitting on the parapet nearby.

Then we went straight

to Yash Chopra's house

and narrated it.

For almost five minutes

there was complete silence.

As they started narrating

the scene where

"My father is a thief"

is tattooed on Vijay's arm

Vijay, say something.

I said this scene alone will guarantee

a 15-week run.

If this is what's on the hero's arm,

imagine what a character he'll become!

Keep this key in your pocket, Peter.

I'll unlock this door,

after I've taken the key

out of your pocket.

Get the signature of the man

who tattooed this on my arm.

And then

- Ma?

- Hey, brother!

- When did he get here, Ma?

- Just now.

Ma was complaining

If you narrate the story

of Deewaar to someone,

so

there's a 90% chance

they'll kick you out of their office.

There was a mother

who had two sons.

One is educated, the other not.

One becomes a cop,

the other a gangster.

In India alone,

at least 25 or 30 films have

been made on this subject.

Ganga Jumna and Mother India

had the same story.

But a story alone isn't enough.

How are we going

to narrate this on the screen.

Which scene follows another.

Which scene we leave halfway

and start another.

That is a screenplay -

how you present scenes

on the screen.

Because anybody who doesn't

visualise it happening

cannot be a screenplay writer.

Sir!

I polish shoes, I'm not a beggar.

Pick up the money

and hand it to me.

Let's go.

Salim-Javed will plant things

throughout the script

that will flower within

the story

And that shows a continuity

of thinking and character.

So the story about the coin:

"I do not pick up coins that

are thrown at me."

You see that come back.

Even today I don't accept

money thrown at me.

My understanding is that

it is not the wordiness

of the dialogue.

It is to do with the content -

that Vijay says something

which everyone felt.

And he said it in a way

which had a flair and a style

and a dignity which

made you feel

he might be a coolie,

but that is just his job,

that's not who he is.

I wasn't aggressive.

So I found

I found some peace with the

reticent, brooding hero.

It became my coping mechanism

in my growing years.

I still felt like a hero.

When you see somebody

who's being himself on screen,

who's a no-nonsense guy

who's not taking sh*t,

if somebody is trying to put him down,

it's tagged as angry young man.

But I feel it's not being angry,

it's being who you are.

It's being very genuine,

and giving it back, you know.

Rahim uncle,

what hasn't happened

in 25 years - will happen now.

Next week another coolie

will refuse to pay

protection money.

It was the 70s

and it was a very strange time.

It took 6 years to get

a gas connection.

There were long lines

to get a ration card.

So people of that time

identified with this character.

The anger and fire

that burned inside this hero

was the same fire

that raged within every young man

in India back then.

People were not content

in those days.

Salim-Javed tapped into

the conscience of a nation

that was also at the cusp

of change -

and had spent enough time

after independence

to now start making demands

and say that, you know,

"We just don't want to take

everything lying down."

We were unaware

of all this while writing.

Nor did we think our stories

had socio-political relevance -

And it's good. I'm very happy

that we were innocent about it.

Because we were the part of that

same society, the same world,

and we were breathing the same air.

Without knowing, we were

in sync with the rest of the people.

We were innocent about it.

But is it really a coincidence that

in 1973, we created a vigilante

But is it really a coincidence that

in 1973, we created a vigilante

and in 1975, India

faced the Emergency?

Are they linked or not?

On 25th June 1975,

everything changed overnight.

President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed

received a request from

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

to declare a state of

Emergency under Section 352.

Many leaders were taken into custody.

The national poet

Ramdhari Singh Dinkar then said:

"Vacate the throne,

the people are coming."

These two writers

were marked by

their personal histories,

but they also carried

a social history with them.

And this ability to connect

the personal with the social

gave their writing

a certain kind of edge.

Tell the man to sign who forced

my father to confess.

Tell the man to sign who insulted

my mother and fired her.

Tell the man to sign

who tattooed this on my arm.

Then

Then, my brother, I will sign

anything you want.

Proving the crimes of others

won't change the fact you're a criminal too.

And this truth -

is a wall between us, brother.

And till this wall stands,

we cannot live under the same roof.

I'm leaving this house.

This instant.

Come, Ma.

Go, if you want to,

but Ma won't leave.

- Ma, come with me.

- I said Ma will not go.

Ma will go.

No, Ma. You can't

leave me and go.

You love me, Ma. I know

you can't leave me.

- I'm going, Vijay.

- No, Ma. Don't go.

The man who forced your father

to confess - who was he to you?

Nobody!

The man who insulted

and fired me - who was he to you?

Nobody!

The man who tattooed

"My father is a thief" on your arm -

who was he to you?

Nobody!

But you

you are my own son.

My own blood.

But you've stamped on my brow that

"My son is a thief".

He felt deeply for his mother's suffering.

So he wanted to give her

every happiness.

In fact his mother

loved him the most.

The dialogue was so good

and my character too.

If you think about it, the film's

real heroine is the mother.

Vijay who has

no belief in God

finding himself climbing up

the steps of the temple

to pray for his ailing mother.

And his opening line is

Today You must be very happy.

And I do remember

the premiere of Deewaar

and there was this

actually a snigger and a gentle laughter

in the audience.

And that conveyed

That it was so unexpected

and they thought it was

some kind of a joke.

But within a couple

of seconds after that,

they just froze.

Is it her crime that

she is my mother?

Is it her crime that

she gave birth to me?

Is it her crime that

I love her?

It had so much to do

with the lost mother.

That comes up

over and over again

in their stories.

And I think it has a lot

to do with the fact that

Javed saab lost his mother

when he was very, very young

and Salim saab also lost his mother,

and that anxiety about being

in a different city

without family,

without a mother figure

weaving that into the story

where the hero is so obsessed.

I mean they're almost like Oedipal

in their obsession with the mother figure.

Deewaar

Trishul

Shakti

The mother factor huge!

Shanti died at your hands ages ago.

She was only cremated 25 years later.

And the flames of that funeral pyre

still burn in my heart,

because I'm that unfortunate Shanti's

son, Mr. R. K. Gupta.

And you're my illegitimate father.

Sudhakar,

take him away.

No. Don't say that.

He will not go.

I will not let him go.

Ma. Enough!

I don't care if I go to jail

or I am hanged,

I won't let you be humiliated

for my sake.

In Papa's films, which they wrote,

the main hero always

always had a father issue.

Yes.

And the mother was always the

like the anchor or

the emotional tug.

And the issue was

always with the father.

They obviously saw life in a way

that everybody else didn't.

That's why they could

write what they did.

I couldn't be with my mother

from the age of five to nine,

because I couldn't go near her.

My mother had tuberculosis.

There was no cure

for TB at that time.

So she'd look at me

from a distance.

One day she saw me playing.

And asked: "Who is this boy?

Whose child is he?"

So the maid told her:

"He's your son."

She called for me.

I was playing with some other kids.

She called for me and then

asked me to stop at a distance.

I stood there, she looked at me

and broke down into tears.

And she was taken inside the house.

Even today when

I recollect that scene,

when I'm having a drink

in the evening,

without provocation,

tears start rolling down my face.

Just thinking about those days.

It's not that I feel bad for myself.

I wonder what she was going through.

I was the youngest of

seven brothers and sisters.

Everyone had gone their own way.

My sisters got married.

I was the only one left.

So my mother was always

worried about me.

And your father?

I was very scared of my father.

He was famous for being strict

and disciplined.

The moment we heard his footsteps,

we'd quickly run and sit down

with our books.

Our trouble began when

he started wearing crepe shoes,

because they made no sound.

A few days after my mother died,

my father became very close to me.

He took me to watch cricket matches,

shopping, all that.

And then he died.

That loneliness

was scary.

On 17th of January,

I was 8 years old in 1953.

She died on the 18th.

And the last time I saw her

was in that white shroud.

For months I used to see

the shroud in my dreams and

even in bright daylight,

I would be slightly scared

of entering a room

if there was nobody

there in the house.

And I would open the door

and look around

I had the feeling that shroud

would be somewhere here.

But this is something I never

shared with anybody.

Children are very secretive

and very complicated creatures.

They have their own personal world

and they don't share

that world with anybody.

Now I am on the wrong side

of seventies,

and I miss my mother sometimes.

And it is funny.

My mother died when

she was perhaps 36.

So am I missing, at the age of 76,

I'm missing

a woman who was 36.

It's a bit

bizarre.

I mean life was not devoid

of love or attention.

But yes, I mean,

we'd fantasise a father,

and whenever we'd meet him,

we'd be very happy.

But I'm afraid that was a rare event.

So why was your father absent?

Well, he was in Bombay

and I don't think financially

he was in a position -

he himself was living in one room.

He was trying to find some

foothold in the film industry

and our mother had

injected some kind of

hero worship of our father

in both of us.

Me and my younger brother.

But there were many moments

of disappointment I remember

that I felt he'll come to meet us

and then last moment we came to know

that he's cancelled his programme,

or so on. So, yes

As a kid, what do you long for?

You long for - maybe the people

who ignored you earlier to say:

"I wish I had paid more attention."

So I think their childhood

and their need for acceptance,

I think played a huge role

in shaping them,

to be not just the writers

that they are -

but even if you see what they did

like "Go, paint my name on the poster".

They could not be taken lightly,

they could not be treated as

just a person working on a film.

They were like the stars of that movie.

And they wanted to be

the stars of that movie.

I mean that's how they worked.

Let's eat.

A line by Faiz Ahmad Faiz

comes to mind.

"What befalls everyone,

befell on me too."

This was our life.

This was our share of

bruises and blows.

These bruises and blows did not go

to waste. They came in handy.

We wrote many scripts

thanks to their force.

Had these trials not happened,

many highlights of our lives

would not have happened either.

So this is the package.

Accept it!

A film like Sholay,

it's like a piece of art that you

just want it untouched.

You just want it to be there

and go back to revisit

that film again and again,

Whenever it comes on TV.

I think it just stands alone,

you know.

It's just one solid vertical

and there's nothing else around it.

You were just talking about the one-liners.

I think the coolest one-liner -

the coolest of all-time in Hindi cinema

has been in Sholay:

'What's your name, Basanti?'

Gabbar's line:

"How many men were there?"

Everything is great in Sholay.

All the characters are great.

Friendship.

Love. Emotions.

Sholay has everything.

That one picture has all of life in it!

G. P. Sippy Saab - after the success of

Seeta aur Geeta,

he wanted to make a big film.

We narrated the story

of Majboor to him.

But he insisted he wanted

to make a big film.

G. P. Sippy saab He was always

a super risk taker.

He didn't know how to do anything

without taking a risk

because that's how his life was.

He wanted to make something exceptional.

Greatest star cast ever assembled.

Greatest story ever told.

I think he wanted to

bring to India, what the

rest of the world was seeing

and not this limited sort of

perspective of entertainment

that they had in the country

at that time.

It was it was beautiful,

but it was still on a small scale.

And I think he just felt that

"Why should we not have that?"

Sholay's location had turned

into a township.

A factory that made various

gadgets was set up nearby.

Say, a scene was to be shot

where Dharam-ji is singing on a cycle

they would make the equipment

so that it could move on one wheel.

So, the very scale of this

picture was unprecedented.

That was the passion

It has to be just this way.

On Friday, the movie released

and sank after the matinee show.

Even the black marketeers

lost money!

After Monday,

the screening at 9 a.m.

had an audience of 4 or 5.

Ramesh-ji who was already nervous,

got even more nervous.

He started with a budget

of 10 million rupees,

sanctioned by his father.

10 million rupees!

By the time he completed the film,

30 million were spent.

Three times the budget.

The reviews came out. Flop.

G. P. Sippy's biggest flop.

Magnum opus flop.

And they went on Indian Express

went on to write about

how terrible the film was,

how it would never take-off.

Trade guide went on calling

it "Cholay" (chickpeas) and:

"This film is a flop"

They brought out a supplement

to analyse why Sholay flopped.

They brought out a supplement

to analyse why Sholay flopped.

We were worried in the beginning

that why are the trade papers

totally slashing the film?

totally slashing the film?

It was very different.

It had action, it had a villain

who was never seen before.

People said: "Why did they

cast a new villain?"

He was not very well-built,

he was short.

It was almost like - how will

this villain appeal?

They also said: "Women won't like this film.

It's too gruesome."

"Your story was all wrong,

"Your story was all wrong,

"the characterisation was wrong,

the scenes were bad."

So everybody said:

"Amitabh Bachchan shouldn't have died

at the end.

"There shouldn't have been talk

of widow re-marriage."

When people were laughing

at the film - that it's a flop,

Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan issued ads in

Screen,Trade Guide

and Film Information,

saying that "Our film will

do ten million per territory".

We had to show we were confident.

We knew the film would do well.

We had an emergency meeting.

Amitabh Bachchan was there,

Ramesh Sippy, Salim saab

and I was there too.

And so

Ramesh-ji said: "You know,

I think we should think of

"changing the ending

that you don't die, but

"you should live."

I should live in the film.

We told him not to worry.

Let them say what they want to.

This is going to be a super hit!

It's all nonsense.

So Ramesh-ji just turned back

and said:

"Let's wait till Monday.

"Let's see what happens on Monday.

"Let's wait till Monday."

And we waited

and didn't go to re-sh**t that scene.

Thank God!

Because

after Monday it became history, didn't it?

O Sambha!

How many men were there?

A scared man is a dead man.

Dying today is cancelled!

Suddenly, we started getting

feedback from our sales team.

That they are hearing the

dialogue on the streets.

So we brought out this LP,

and you wouldn't believe it,

the moment we released it

in the market,

it was an extraordinary success.

It just flew.

Then you saw the film

getting a little lift-up

and you saw the film getting,

you know, acknowledged.

Before the box-office could

open on Monday morning,

there was a long queue

from Sunday night.

All the black marketeers

bought cars

and homes, thanks to Sholay.

They still hold onto

the cinema ticket,

to show their kids how they

managed to buy their property.

I used to live next to

a cinema hall

which ran Sholay

for about 3 years.

Last count, I've seen it

about 26 times on screen.

The ad we released

the film surpassed it manifold.

Our predictions turned out wrong.

Many people in the film industry

were demoralised by this.

They said: "Who are these guys?"

They even predict their film will be a hit,

and it is!

They say their film will earn

this much and it does!

They know something!

Originally the storyline came

from Salim saab.

The two main characters

were recruits in the army.

They were so useless,

they were thrown out.

There was a Major who later became

a police officer - Thakur saab.

But I remember G. P. Sippy Saab said

not to show them as army men.

It'd mean certain limitations. You can't

take too many liberties, and so on.

There was a room in our office

called the "Thinking Room".

It had mattresses

laid out and bolsters.

As we got into the script

of Sholay and if I feel

As we got into the script

of Sholay and if I feel

I'm talking about canvas, about vision

and they're trying to fill me in -

"Yes, then let's do it

like this instead!"

"Yes, then let's do it

like this instead!"

It just went on. It was

a continuous process.

Ramesh-ji used to say: "There

are two-page-long dialogue.

"You have to say it

all in one shot."

I was very worried and scared.

How do I do it? You know.

So Javed-ji enacted it all and showed me.

I think what he did, it just got in

that impression was there

in my mind.

Fully - I just did it!

This is a village, sir!

No cars here to - grrr- speedily

take you to your destination.

Only Basanti's horsecart runs here.

If you're writing a Sholay

about a village, about a dacoit,

about so many people,

then you have to have a world where

other characters have

to be interesting.

And when you write a small

character, it's not just to-

okay, so he should say this line,

so that a hero can say this line.

No, that person should have a role,

should have a part, should have a

visibility, should become interesting.

I'm a jailer from the British era!

A tunnel in my jail? Haha!

I grabbed them by their collars

and said

Why is it so quiet here?

Chief, I've eaten your salt.

Now

Eat my b*llet!

My father was a high-ranking police officer.

We heard stories of a dacoit

called Gabbar Singh.

Yes.

He used to k*ll people

and chop off their noses too.

The accused Gabbar Singh,

son of Hari Singh

Anything inspired from

real life has a distinct impact.

I will not forget.

I will never forget you.

Did you see a lot of them

in their films?

They have taken a lot of characters

Definitely saw Gabbar.

In Javed!

Just joking.

But I know one thing about Javed,

he loves to write dialogue

for negative roles. The villain.

He loves it!

The thing is - we all have anger

within us.

Deep down we all want to do

as we wish.

But morality, circumstances,

pressures, fears keep us in check.

You see when kids go to the zoo,

they first run to see the tiger.

And if you tell them

there's a cheetah too,

and a black panther.

They'll want to see them.

They go to see the birds much later.

Why do kids admire them?

Why did kids like Gabbar Singh?

Even adults loved him.

A ruthless man who had no

emotional or moral justification

for his cruelty.

He's totally free from morality,

which is tightly wrapped

around us with a rope.

On some subconscious level,

we admire that

this person is free.

Without the villain, a film is no fun.

The hero has his charm

but it's the villain who

gives life to the movie.

The villain starts the drama,

the hero ends it.

That's the usual movie cl*max.

When the family's been k*lled

and there's one small child left

and Gabbar Singh picks up his g*n.

You don't see the child getting hit.

And as he fires

There's all that smoke coming out.

Like this!

So for us at that time

it was like, you know,

how people reacted

to Tarantino later on.

Even though Sholay did not

show much bloodshed.

But its level of violence,

it kind of took your breath away.

Even when Thakur's

arms were severed,

anybody would've shown

the arms lying around,

blood spattered about.

"Thakur, give these arms to me."

And he's saying, "No, no!"

There is not a single shot

of blood splashing,

or severed arms nothing.

And this is written

in the screenplay.

This was the masterstroke

of the premise of Sholay.

This proud man has been

subjected to such indignity, but –

he doesn't want them

to t*rture Gabbar to death

and drag his corpse to him.

No.

The uniqueness was:

"I want Gabbar - alive."

Gabbar Singh?

That famous dacoit?

Yes, him.

You have to catch that dacoit for me -

Alive!

Ramlal.

Here's five thousand rupees.

You'll get five more when

you come to Ramgarh.

And the rest after the job's done.

Partner?

Heads, we go.

- Tails.

- No.

About this coin

there was a Western

called Garden of Evil.

We got the idea from there.

- High card stays?

- It's good enough.

Originality is the art

of concealing the source.

When you don't know

the source, it's original.

Some people may eventually

figure out the source.

So it's better to admit

where ideas come from.

We never hid the truth.

We talked about our inspiration.

No one is stopping you

from doing the same.

In those days there was

no moral dilemma as such,

because English movies

were released in only

a few cities in India.

They were from another planet.

They weren't going to be seen here.

So if they inspired us,

it wasn't the end of the world.

Today if I'm writing a script

and if someone says

this scene is similar to some

other scene, I'll change it.

The power of Salim-Javed was really

to kind of take little bits,

you know, here, there

and then re-fashion them

completely to be something

original.

It wasn't, it never felt

you know that: "We've seen this before."

Soldier no. 2!

Are you coming out or

should I sh**t your partner?

Stop!

Come!

I mean what they did

with Gabbar is pretty much

what you saw in Joker

many, many, many decades later.

When you see Kareena Kapoor Khan

in Jab We Met,

that's Basanti.

When you see an intense action

hero even today, that's Bachchan.

They created all those characters

and Sholay is the mothership film

where we are all still

deriving and driving from.

O Sambha!

How much reward has

the government put on my head?

Chief, a full fifty thousand

times I have told you!

I'll watch an ad

and it'll still have

a character or a dialogue

from that film 50 years later!

I don't know what to make of it.

I find it incredible.

Why is it today people talk

about those dialogue?

It's because it's not just dialogue,

it's philosophy.

It's a consolidated knowledge.

One line - you can communicate

a hundred things. I think that's what they've done.

Hey soldier!

- Sing us a song.

- What song?

The song that makes that

dazzling woman dance.

- That one?

- Yes.

Let me show you something

to impress you.

This is Faiz's autograph.

"For Jadoo miyaan.

With love, Faiz.

"March 84."

What do you know!

We're among the very

rare species still alive!

The Last of the Mohicans.

These two boys came out of nowhere

and they were game changers.

No one imagined they'd change

the status of film writers.

Or these kinds of films would be made.

That's why there's never been

anyone like them in all these years.

Now when I look back,

like a third person

who can see Salim and Javed there

I realise theirs was

an unbelievable combination!

Two kinds of people

should never work together.

Those who don't agree

on anything.

And those who agree about everything.

If you agree about everything,

then you don't need two people,

one is enough.

And if you don't agree about anything,

how will you work together?

On one level perhaps

we had so much in common.

And on another level,

we were very different people.

Sometimes I would say,

or Javed would say:

"This isn't good enough.

"People expect a lot from us."

What you see in a film

is what we finalised.

You haven't seen the fifty

discarded scenes.

We used to work like office hours.

I would go to him from 11 a.m.

and come home at 8 p.m.

Salim saab was always

very much on time,

not Javed.

He had to either call first and say:

"I'm coming, wake him up."

Or he'd have to come and wake him up.

Or something like that, but

I just remember my father telling me that

they gave the best narrations

because they told me a story.

It was like an orchestra,

he said they were so in sync.

Whatever weakness one may have,

I think the other one kind of

stepped in and balanced that out.

It was amazing.

The synchronicity

between the two of them.

They had a very good

relationship.

I have never seen them

ever discussing: "Let's try this or that."

They were both on the same page.

The way they spoke,

the way they said things

I mean it was like

one body, one mind,

one mouth, one voice!

One plus one is not two,

it's eleven.

It was the hottest writing duo,

then suddenly one day they say:

"We are not together".

Of course, it shook the industry.

Producers' lives were being made

because of them.

Directors' lives, stars' lives.

Cinema-owners used

to wait for Salim-Javed films.

Now if that team

is no longer a team,

of course, it's not going

to be the same.