Plot

Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar were screenwriters in Bollywood.

Salman is Salim's son, and Farhan is Javed's son, Zoya is Javed's daughter. Dharmendra believes that Salim and Javed revolutionized screenplays and dialogues in Bollywood. Salim and Javed were both outsiders to the industry which they gate crashed. They did 24 films together, out of which 22 were blockbusters. This included Seeta Aur Geeta, Zanjeer (1973), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Chacha Bhatija (1977), Trishul (1978), Don (1978), Kaala Patthar (1979), Dostana (1980), Kranti (1981), Shakti (1982). The only common factor across all these movies was Salim-Javed.

Their dialogues became iconic one-liners for generations of movie lovers. People could connect with their characters, and they were very bold in their approach. They had the ability to draw audiences to theaters. AR Rahman quoted their dialogue at the Oscars "Mere Paas Maa Hai".

Jaya felt that Salim-Javed knew they were good and loved to praise themselves. They were the brats. They put their names on the movie posters, when it was unheard of to put writer's names on any of the marketing materials. They refused movies like stars and charged Rs 2.5 Lakhs for a movie, when the going rate was Rs 5,000. For Dostana, they charged more than Amitabh Bachchan. Whatever was paid to Amitabh, they would charge Rs 1 Lakh more. That was the power of Salim-Javed.

Salim came to Bombay from Indore, where he used to write love letters. He was noticed by a producer K. Amarnath, at a wedding in Indore and who asked him to come to Bombay for a screen test for an acting part in a movie. He got a role of Ajit's younger brother in the movie Baarat. He lived in the Marina Guest House, twin occupancy and rent of Rs 55 per month, and a common toilet. Naeem Khan is Salim's brother. Salim never asked for money from home.

Javed came from Bhopal. He always wanted to come to Bombay after graduation to become a director. He worked as an apprentice at Kamaal studios and earned Rs 50 per month. He saw the screen test of Sanjeev Kumar. He lived with some friends and then slept and lived at public places at railway stations, parks and studio compounds. He went through a lot of sleep and food deprivation and that left a lasting mark on his psyche. Even today, when he gets his breakfast at a 5-star hotel, he cannot believe that this luxury is for him.

Salim was launched in a movie as a hero with Farah's mother as the heroine. The movie was produced by Farah's maternal grandmother. The movie ran all of one show. Helen believed Salim was a good actor but was not overly expressive and hence was considered to be a bad actor. Salim met Salma as they were neighbors. Salma was 17 when Salim was 24. They got married in 1964. Salman was born in 1965. Salim accepted all sorts of job to pay the bills at home. He got into advertisements. Salim struggled in the industry for 15 years. Salim had the talent to conceive characters, but he did not possess the talent to bring them to life. Salim decided to stop pursuing acting as a career.

Salim and Javed never blamed anyone. They accepted the struggle as a part of their journey and did it properly. Salim and Javed met on the sets of a small film called Sarhadi Lutera. Salim was playing the role of a romantic lead. Javed was performing a stunt, when the dialogues came in for the next scene and the director was not happy for it. Javed offered to rewrite the dialogues and people started recommending Javed to become a writer full-time. Javed moved to Bandra and coincidentally was living close to Salim, and they became friends. SM Sagar, the producer of Sarhadi Lutera came to meet Salim-Javed and offered them Rs 5000 to write a script for his next movie Adhikaar.

Sudhir Wahi was an assistant on the sets of Adhikaar and asks Salim-Javed to meet Sippy Films in Khar, who were looking for new writers. Salim-Javed were hired on probation for 3 months at Rs 750 per month. They worked at Sippy films for the same money for 8 years. They wrote movies like Andaz, Haathi Mere Saathi, Yaadon Ki Baarat. Salim-Javed became partners.

Javed met Honey Irani on the sets of Seeta Aur Geeta, and they got married. Salim-Javed came at a time when there was a lot of discontent in society, and they reflected that in their writing. 50's and 60's had almost 500 romantic movies released, and Salim-Javed created the 70's by developing an angry, Angsty, anti-establishment lead. The Angry Young Man was created. Amitabh Bachchan came into the limelight after Zanjeer. The characters were so true to their role, that Amitabh had no songs in Zanjeer. Every lead actor had refused Zanjeer due to this reason, even though Prakash Mehra was producing it. Yet, Prakash stuck to the script. Amitabh's movies were failing at this point, and he was at his lowest ebb. No heroine wanted to work with him. Salim-Javed saw Amitabh in Mehmood's film Bombay to Goa at Chandan theatre. Salim-Javed recommended Amitabh to Prakash. Jaya never wanted to do Zanjeer, which was a Male-Centric film. Jaya did the movie as her co-star would be Amitabh and Salim-Javed asked her for a favor to not refuse the film.

Writers were never credited on movie posters. So, Salim-Javed hired a painter and printed their names on all Zanjeer movie posters all over the city. The emotions and anger of Salim-Javed got reflected in the character of Vijay, immortalized by Amitabh in numerous movies they did together.