The documentary Angry Young Men was released on Amazon Prime Video today, that is, August 20, and it educates viewers about some fascinating trivia. It is about the glorious career of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, who were known as Salim-Javed and how they changed the course of Indian cinema. The turning point in their lives was the film Zanjeer (1973) and it also made Amitabh Bachchan an actor to watch out for. Big B was cast opposite Jaya Bachchan, who he later married. The first episode consists of interesting trivia about this classic movie.
Angry Young Men: Jaya Bachchan had reservations about signing ‘male-centric’ Zanjeer; Salim-Javed open up on putting their names on posters: “Songwriter writes one page and gets mentioned but not the writer who wrote the entire script”
Jaya Bachchan revealed, “I didn’t want to do Zanjeer. I basically never wanted to be a part of male-centric cinema. Zanjeer was a male-centric film.” Explaining why she ended up signing the film, she said, “Salim saab and Javed saab were very straightforward. They had tried a lot of other women actors. Of course, they all had refused. And they said, ‘You can’t say no, we need you’!”
Jaya continued, “Another temptation was my co-star (Amitabh Bachchan). So, I thought, ‘Chalo, kuch waqt mil jaayega (to spend with each other)’.”
One of the most amazing episodes revolving Zanjeer is how Salim-Javed mentioned their names on the posters of the film on their own. Salim Khan justified their bold decision, “A script is the most important thing in filmmaking. Yet, writers were not valued, and sometimes not even credited. This was a practice, which we decided to break. Hence, we caught hold of a painter and gave him paint, a brush and a stencil with our names.”
Javed Akhtar raised laughs as he said, “The painters were drunk while doing our job. So, they painted our names on the heroine’s name, hero’s forehead and Pran’s mouth (laughs)!”
Javed also put all the blame on Salim Khan, “All these acts of bravery were his. He used to instigate me. I’d ask him, ‘Are you sure?’. He replied, ‘Haan, haan. Kyun nahin? Kya darr hai? Dekha jaayega’!”
Salim Khan further stated, “We worked so hard and you won’t give us credit? A songwriter, who writes a single page, has his name on the poster, while the writer of the entire script isn’t mentioned!”
Javed Akhtar also said that this move raised a lot of eyebrows, “Some people didn’t take this kindly. They were like, ‘Tum log writer ho aur phir bhi chahte ho ki sab log tumhe jaane?’!”
Also Read: Angry Young Men: Zoya Akhtar reveals that Salman Khan taught her how to ride a bicycle
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