In much of the 1970s and 80s, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar revolutionized the way the film industry looked at screenwriting and screenwriters with their stream of phenomenal hits like Zanjeer, Deewaar, Sholay, Don, Trishul, Shakti and Mr India. Salim and Javed re-wrote the entire profile of screenwriters with their uninterrupted successful run at the box office. And now Javed Akhtar’s son Farhan Akhtar and the latter’s partner Ritesh Sidhwani of Excel Entertainment are all set to produce a documentary-drama on the Salim-Javed phenomenon.
A source very close to the development informs, “It will contain extensive interviews with Javed and Salim Saab and also with Amitabh Bachchan whose career was spectacularly amplified by the films that Salim-Javed wrote for him. It will also have extensive footage from the phenomenal films that the duo wrote.” There were rumours that Javed Saab’s daughter Zoya Akhtar will direct the documentary. This is untrue. “We are on the verge of finalizing the director. It will be someone new,” the source told me.
Earlier there were reports as stated in Pinkvilla that Zoya will be helming the docu-series. The source had told the portal, “Zoya feels that the Salim-Javed combo gave a new lease to writers in the Hindi film industry and their achievements deserve to make it to the spectacle. While at first, she was planning to spin a biopic for theatres on their life, through the lockdown she felt that the story demands to be showcased on a digital medium.” The docu-series will be an interesting watch for sure!
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