Weekend

In today’s weekend blog, I am writing a fact about the most popular screenwriters of Bollywood. When they worked as pair, the films written by them were always hit, they had one or two flop films to their name. Even after separating out when they started writing for the films, many of their films were quite successful. Friends I am talking about Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, and as a pair, they were famous as SALIM JAVED. In the 70s and 80s, they were so famous that their name used to be prominently displayed in the publicity of the film.

A few weeks back one of my friends wrote to me on social media and said “ Do you know in the films written by Salim Javed, the villain was always Hindu by name and there was no Muslim as the villain.”. I was shocked to learn about this and told him I would research on the subject, and after the research, I found out that he was telling the truth.

I am listing their hit films where the villain was Hindu.

 

1 Haathi Mere Saathi– 1971. Starring Rajesh Khanna & Tanuja. The villain’s role was played by KN Singh and in the film, his name was Sarwan Kumar.

2 Zanjeer 1973. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, and Pran. The Villain named Teja was enacted by Ajit on screen.

3 Yaadon Ki Baraat 1973. Starring Dharmendra, Vijay Arora & Zeenat Aman. The role of villain Shakaal was played by Ajit.

4 Majboor 1974. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Parveen Babi, and Pran. The villain was Narendra Sinha played by Satyen Kappu.

5 Deewar 1975. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Parveen Babi, Shashi Kapoor & Neetu Singh. The villains were Mulkraj Dhabar (Iftekhar) and Samant (Madan Puri)

6 Sholay 1975. Starring Dharmendra, Amitabh, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri & Sanjeev Kumar. The villain Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan).

7 Aakhri Dao 1975. Starring Jeetendra, Saira Banu. The villains were Robert (Danny) and Dilawar Singh (Ranjeet)

8 Imaan Dharam 1977. Starring Amitabh, Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar. The villain Ranjeet (Prem Chopra)

9 Chacha Bhatija 1977. Starring Dharmendra, Randhir Kapoor, Hema Malini. The villains were Laxmidas (Jeevan ) and Kiran (Rupesh Kumar)

10 Trishul 1978. Starring Amitabh, Shashi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Rakhi & Sanjeev Kumar. The villain Balwant Rai (Prem Chopra)

11 Don 1978. Starring Amitabh, Zeenat Aman, Pran. The villain Vardhan (Om Shivpuri)

12 Kala Pathar 1979. Starring Amitabh, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha. The villain Dhanraj Puri (Prem Chopra)

13 Dostana 1980. Starring Amitabh, Shatrughan Sinha, Zeenat Aman. The villain Balwant Singh (Amrish Puri)

13 Shakti 1982. Starring Dilip Kumar, Amitabh, Rakhi, & Smita Patil. The villain JK Varma (Amrish Puri)

14 Zamana 1985. Starring Rishi Kapoor. The villain JD (Kulbhushan Kharbandha)

15 Mr India 1987. Starring Anil Kapoor & Sridevi. The villain Mogambo (Amrish Puri)

Above were the films were written by them as pair.

Now let us see their films as a solo writer

Salim Khan:

1 Angaray 1986. Starring Rajesh Khanna, Smita Patil, Raj Babbar. The villain Mr Jolly ( Shakti Kapoor)

2 Naam 1986. Starring Sanjay Dutt, Kumar Gaurav, and Amrita Singh. The villain Rana ( Paresh Rawal)

3 Akyla 1991. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff. The Villain  Tony (Keith Stevenson)

He wrote some other films also but they did not fare well at Box office.

 

Javed Akhtar:

1 Betaab 1983. Starring Sunny Deol and Amrita Singh. The villain Balwant (Prem Chopra)

2 Duniya 1984. Starring Dilip Kumar, Rishi Kapoor. The villains were Balwant Singh (Amrish Puri), Jugal Kishore (Pran), and Prakash Chandra (Prem Chopra)

3 Mashal 1984. Starring Dilip Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, and Anil Kapoor. The villain SK Vardhan (Amrish Puri)

4 Saagar 1985. Starring Kamal Hasan, Rishi Kapoor, and Dimple Kapadia. The villain Vikram ( Shafi Inamdar)

5 Meri Jung 1985. Starring Anil Kapoor, Nutan & Meenakshi Sheshadari . The villain Thakral (Amrish Puri).

6 Arjun 1985. Starring Sunny Deol, Dimple Kapadia. The villains Shiv Kumar (Anupam Kher) and Anand Patkar (Shafi Inamdar)

7 Khel 1992. Starring Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, and Mala Sinha. The villain Balwant (Prem Chopra).

8 Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja 1993. Starring Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, and Jackie Shroff. The villain Jugraan (Anupam Kher)

He wrote a few other films also, but there also villain was a Hindu Character.

In my opinion in their writing, there was an anti-Hindu sentiment. As in the 70s and early 80s, the underworld was full of Muslims but in none of their film, there was a Muslim character shown as the villain. Even films like Deewar which was partly based on the famous smuggler Haji Mastan, there was no Muslim character in any of the rival gangs. It looks like intentionally they never wanted to show Muslim characters in negative shades and whenever they have shown Muslim characters in their films, all these characters were of positive nature

Both Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan, who always talk about national integration, but when it comes to terrorism they will never condemn terrorism by Islamic organizations, but they will be always in the front when parties like Congress talk about Hindu terrorism.

So What do you say in this matter?

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

28^th May 2021