Did Shabana Azmi make Javed Akhtar split with Salim Khan?
Arbaaz Khan said that he heard as a child that Shabana Azmi had encouraged Javed Akhtar to split with Salim Khan.
In a recent chat with Shabana Azmi, Arbaaz Khan asked the veteran actress if she encouraged Javed Akhtar to split with his father, Salim Khan. The duo, best known as Salim-Javed, had penned scripts for several blockbuster movies. These included Sholay, Zanjeer, Deewar and Don to name a few. Arbaaz recalled hearing as a child that Shabana was responsible for their split. However, the actress clarified that this was the duo’s decision and she also doesn’t know the reason till today.
Shabana Azmi appeared as a guest on The Invincibles when Arbaaz asked her, “Salim-Javed were at the peak of their careers, and around the same time, you entered Javed saab’s life. And shortly afterwards, at the peak of their careers, they split. A lot of people tried to find answers as to why they would’ve split. Some went so far as to suggest that because Javed saab was a writer and poet, Shabana encouraged him to pursue a solo career. You might have heard these rumours too; I heard them as a child. How did you react to that?”
She replied, “Arbaaz, will you believe it, that till today I don’t know why Salim-Javed have split. Since I thought it was a personal decision, I shouldn’t get involved in it. But I think what was happening is that he was going through some change. He had started writing poetry, he was moving into another kind of world. I don’t know what happened and why they ever split, but I do know that he was a much happier person having taken this huge risk. There is no merit or ‘dismerit’ meri taraf se.”
During an interview with Mojo Story earlier this year, Javed Akhtar reflected on his and Salim Khan’s separation. He said, “When we began, both of us were nobodies, we only had each other. So, we would spend a lot of time together, sit by the sea, talk about stories. He would come to my room, I had one paying guest room, or I would go to his house, which was a small one. But when you become bigger, more successful, many more people enter your life. Then all those desires which were dormant, all those interests which were dormant… The moment you have done something which was the main issue of your life or the main interest, you reach a satisfactory position and then all the other interests start emerging.”
He clarified that their split had nothing to do with money or credit. “You start meeting different kind of people and then gradually you become different people and that is what happened. We did not fight, there was no issue about credit, there was never any issue about money, there was nothing. We just grew apart. One realised that relationship is no longer there, that we now don’t sit together in the evening, we have our own set of friends. Gradually that happened and the rapport weakened, and it was reflecting on our work also,” he added.
