It was a chance encounter on a movie set in the 1960s between Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar that marked the beginning of their successful partnership as screenwriters and the rest, as they say, is history. Akhtar, one-half of the writing duo, said he met his collaborator while Khan was acting in the 1966 film "Sarhadi Lutera". "We never decided that we will now start working together, we never consciously decided that now we'll work together, it just grew, it just happened.
The first job I got, I was paid Rs 50 for that, then jumped to Rs 100 as my fee for 'Sarhadi Lutera'. "It turned out to be one of the most important films in my career because that's where I met Salim sahab. He was the romantic lead in that film and I was writing dialogues for it," Akhtar told reporters.
At the trailer launch event of the Prime Video docuseries "'Angry Young Men', which explores their creative partnership and legacy, Akhtar recalled his first meeting with Khan. It was Khan, with whom Akhtar wrote 'Zanjeer', 'Seeta Aur Geeta', 'Deewar', 'Sholay', and 'Mr India', who encouraged him to pen scripts for movies. "The director and the producer on the film ('Sarhadi Lutera') troubled me a lot during that time but it was Salim sahab who continuously motivated me to write.
He said 'If you can write so well for a film like this, you'd write so much better for better films'," he said. Akhtar said he would frequently meet Khan at his Bandra residence after moving to the Mumbai suburb. "At least one meal.