He was the master wordsmith of his times. He is someone even Salman Khan holds in reverence. And his name is Salim Khan, one half of the famous scriptwriting duo of Salim – Javed and father of the Khan trio of Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail. 

Much like his explosive scripts, he gave an explosive interview to ETC Bollywood Business host Komal Nahta. 

As a parent, are you not worried that Salman Khan is still unmarried?  “You need 2 people for a marriage,” states the elderly Khan, and then explains further, “There’s a contradiction in Salman’s character. He gets attracted to women from his industry only…his co-stars become his love interests. Once a relationship is established, he starts looking for his mom in them. Now that is not possible. A woman who has just started her career can’t be doing stuff like preparing meals, washing clothes, preparing kids and yet lead the hectic life of a movie star! This expectation can’t be met by a woman who has just started her film career…not even if she tries.”  As a father Salim Khan doesn’t want to hurry his son into marriage. The elderly writer, though, draws comfort from the fact that Salman’s kundli clearly mentions that he will get married. Will Salman tie the knot with Katrina Kaif? “I can’t say if Katrina is in Salman’s life. Whenever a decision stretches for so long a time, I think we can say that the ideal he was looking for, is not there. If a marriage decision stretches for so long, it usually does not happen. It means that the person is not 100% sure to get into it…that’s why the delay.” answers Salim Khan. And then adds philosophically, “Marriages are emotional accidents of life…they can’t be debated for so long and then entered into!”

Known as a straight talker, Salim Khan says of his other son Arbaaz, “His career was going nowhere. When he’d started 20 years ago, he used to get Rs. 20 lakhs for a movie. It came down to 15 lakhs, then 11 lakhs, then 5/6 lakhs. Ghar pe rehta tha, ghari dekh ke bachcho ko school se lane jata tha. We were all worried for him. Then we decided that he should get into the movie production business. And look what he has achieved!” beamed the proud father, relief quite evident in his voice, now that Arbaaz has struck gold with his very first production venture, Dabangg. 

For the first time in 29 years, Salim Khan spoke on what caused the famous duo Salim – Javed to part ways, “We were in Javed’s building one evening when Javed told me he wanted to split….that he’d been thinking about it for some time now. I shook hands with him and started walking towards my car. He also started to walk with me, but I held him, turned him towards his house and said, ‘I can look after myself.’ I came back home and didn’t tell anyone about it. The next evening, calls started coming in, asking about the split. It was only after a few days that I announced the split.” 

But what was the reason behind ending such a wonderful and successful association? 
“Javed wanted to use this partnership to start writing lyrics too. I hadn’t consented to the use of my name for something that I had no interest in and knew nothing about. I told him to constrict the partnership to script-writing, while he could write lyrics on his own.” explained Salim Khan. 

“When Javed had come from Bhopal, he hadn’t come to be a writer. He had come to Mumbai to be a director. I discovered the talent in him,” he added. 

Javed Akhtar was working as an assistant director in a S.M. Sagar production of which Salim Khan was the script writer. “From there we got to know each other. He started coming to my home and that’s how we started growing close. One day, Sagar sa’ab came home with a story that he wanted me to script. Javed was there with me at that time and requested that he work on it (the script) with me. We got Rs. 10,000 which we split in half. That was how the partnership started!” reminisced Salim Khan. 
Just when it looked that Salim Khan was done, he came up with another startling declaration. The Angry Young Man image that has defined Amitabh Bachchan’s persona is solely his creation. “The Angry Young Man image was conceptualized by me for the film Zanjeer. Javed wasn’t even my partner when I wrote the film. It was only after I had sold it, that Javed became my partner,” clarified Salim Khan, and added almost as an afterthought, “And I believe even Javed Sa’ab would confirm that it was solely my creation.” 

The ace script writer feels that the Big B doesn’t quite acknowledge his role in shaping up the superstar’s career. “If Amitabh doesn’t remember, I’d like to remind him that his 2 successful associations, with Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra, were because of me. I’d called Amitabh to Juhu Hotel and introduced him to Manmohan Desai, while we were there to discuss the script of Chacha Bhatija.

Prakash Mehra was shooting at Rajkamal for Pyar Ki Kahani. I’d called Amitabh to the sets and introduced him to Prakash Mehra,” stated Salim Khan, quite matter-of-factly. 

And then, chuckling, added, “I’m mentioning the locations so that he doesn’t forget them too!”

With Dabangg on a roll, the proud father of the superstar Khans, Arbaaz and Salman, looks all set to pour his heart out. Watch more of this explosive interview exclusively on ETC Bollywood Business on channel ETC on Thursday, 7th October at 8:30 p.m.
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