‘Usne Hamein Bohot Paise…’: Javed Akhtar Reveals How Rajesh Khanna Made Him, Salim Khan Richer!

The duo of screenwriters- Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan have given many blockbusters to Bollywood. However, after working together for some time, they went separate paths. After this, Akhtar started writing songs. Recently, he appeared on Arbaaz Khan’s chat show ‘The Invincibles’ and narrated an interesting story. Javed Akhtar revealed that legendary actor Rajesh Khanna helped him and Salim Khan a lot in earning money.

‘Made the second half of ‘Andaz’

During the interview with Arbaaz Khan, Javed told, ‘Back in time, the makers of Andaz got stuck in making the second half of the film. We made the second half of the film. Our name appeared in the additional screenplay. Now, at this time around 1969-70, Rajesh Khanna’s new film became a hit. He used to meet us everyday. This is how we became friends.’

Rajesh Khanna sought help for this reason

Akhtar further quoted, ‘One day he (Rajesh Khanna) came with Salim and said that he has a compulsion. He is buying a house on Carter Road and it is very expensive. The house is worth Rs four lakhs and the producer has given him a whopping Rs 2.5 lakh signing amount and he cannot return it. But if he works on that script, he will exit the film industry. He gave us the offer of correcting the second half of the film in such a way that it works on the box office.’

Placed a condition in front of the producer

Javed Akhtar stated, ‘I read the script to see what it is. We put forward a condition to the producer. It was that the hero will remain same and we will save your four elephants too. But besides this, we will change everything. We worked on its screenplay and narrated them the improvised version. They liked it. Then, Rajesh Khanna gave us ten thousand rupees- five thousand to Salim and five thousand to me. This was making us richer.’

Javed-Salim work

Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan is one of the most loved duos of Bollywood. They have worked as screenwriters in popular Hindi films such as Sholay, Don and Deewaar, among others.