But, as writers, Khan and Akhtar had different strong suits. “Salim sir was the man with the ideas, the plotting, the narrative. It was his decision to cut off Thakur’s arms in Sholay. Javed saab, on the other hand, had the gift of the gab. It was his purview as to how a character will speak. Together, they were a great mixture of structure and texture,” she says.The Salim-Javed blend gave birth to the ‘Angry Young Man’, a character immortalised by Amitabh Bachchan, ripples of whom can still be seen in recent blockbusters. “In the 70s, the focus was more on societal injustice. The struggle has become more personal now,” says Namrata. “Like if you see Gully Boy (2019), Animal (2023) or KGF, the battle of the lead characters is more internal than external.”We ask if she feels there is a deification of anti-heroes in the current cinema. “In a way, yes,” she says. “Like in Deewar, Amitabh Bachchan’s Vijay becomes a criminal but ultimately dies in the end, that doesn’t happen now. The modern anti-hero doesn’t get punished by death, there might be other ways, like his family abandons him or he doesn’t get what he wants, but he doesn’t die.”By delivering 22 hits out of the 24 they worked together on, Salim-Javed elevated the position of the writer in the industry. There was a time when they were paid more than the lead actor of the film. The baton, however, hasn’t been taken much forward. Writers still don’t find their names well-represented on film posters. “Bollywood remains a star-driven system.There is still ignorance as to how important the script is. Producers believe that if you get a bunch of A-list actors together, people will flock to the theatres. To some extent that still happens,” says Namrata. “There has been some shift with OTT coming up but it is not major. Makers need to realise that it all starts with the word.”
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