Javed Akhtar on his struggles: 'Lived with some friends, slept on railways stations, didn't have money and...'

The coming together of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar is a story that could make for a whole new documentary. When you decide to document the lives of Hindi cinema’s most iconic writing duo, it’s impossible to film every experience they have lived.

There comes a moment in the documentary when Akhtar speaks about his struggles and earlier days. He revealed, ““I decided that after my graduation, I’d go to Bombay and work as an assistant director, hopefully with either Guru Dutt or Raj Kapoor. I was sure that after a couple of years of doing this, I’d definitely become a director.”

The veteran added, “I was in my father’s house for exactly five days, and then I went on my own. I lived with some friends, slept on railways stations, parks, studio compounds, in corridors, on benches, and so on. Some days, I’d walk all the way from Dadar to Bandra, because I didn’t have money for bus fare. Some days, it would strike me that I hadn’t eaten for two days. I would always think to myself that if one day a biography were to be written about me, this would make for an incredible moment.”

Director Namrata Rao takes on the challenge to dive deep into the lives of these two people who soon became a force to reckon with, and penned some of Hindi cinema’s most memorable and crucial films. We now call them the new wave. Zanjeer, for that matter, that came out in 1973, was as much of a game changer for this duo as it was for Amitabh Bachchan.

Bachchan and Salim-Javed were the blockbuster Jodi and yet, this actor makes an entry only towards the end of episode one. He says he was done and dusted and the fact that Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar wanted to even pitch an idea to him was heartening. And then began the journey that gave us Sholay, Don, Trishul, and Dostana, and Deewar.