Salim-Javed created him, and are now Angry Young Men themselves!

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In 1973, the film Zanjeer ranked next only to Bobby in box-office status, but it was as much of a trailblazer as Raj Kapoor’s romantic musical. It established the career of Amitabh Bachchan, of the ‘Angry Young Man’ as he came to be known, of male bonding, and began raising the status of the writer in Hindi cinema. And it also made Salim-Javed iconic.

And so, writers Salim-Javed, in their first solo film (after Haathi Mere Saathi, Andaz and Seeta Aur Geeta) began their illustrious journey that spanned a slew of blockbusters for the next decade, including Hindi cinema’s biggest-ever hit, Sholay. Their films have not only dominated the box-office, but redefined Hindi cinema and even impacted society. Their last hit was Mr. India (1987), which Javed completed and also wrote lyrics for, and now their children have made it big too.

Amazon Prime Video is now set to release a 3-part docu-series about their extraordinary saga, Angry Young Men, and hosted the trailer launch on August 13 at Mumbai’s Taj Land’s End Hotel.  The series is directed by Namrata Rao, who has been with Yash Raj Films for over 15 years as an editor, and was first proposed by Zoya Akhtar, who has said that their record of success has never been matched before and never will.  This story, therefore, just had to be told. Namrata added that it was incredible how their world opened up before her, and that what she had imagined would be an easy job turned out to be so challenging.

Present at the crowded event were, besides the legendary writers, their entire families, Manish Menghani, Director, Content Licensing, Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sohail Khan, Arpita Sharma and Alvira Agnihotri and Alizeh from Salim Khan’s side, and Shabana Azmi, Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar from Javed Akhtar’s family. Also there were Ritesh Sodhwani, Farhan’s partner in filmmaking, and Reema Kagti, Zoya’s co-producer in Tiger Baby Productions. Salman Khan Films, Excel Entertainment and Tiger Baby Productions, have produced the series.

Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar shared deliciously nostalgic as well as humorous stories of their careers and association, with Farhan stating that the prime advice  given to him by his dad was of not to be influenced by the latter’s work and not to listen to anything he advised. Salman’s repartee to it was that he and his siblings still had to listen to their dad even today!

The trailer showed people stating that Salim and Javed were brats who were never humble. Salman’s answer to that was these were opinions of those multiple names who never could work with the busy Salim-Javed due to creative differences or time constraints.

And while everyone on the dais mentioned their favorite iconic Salim-Javed one-liners, Salman quipped, “Mine is Mere paas maa hai, adding, woh bhi do do (I have two mothers, referring to his mother as well as Salim’s second wife, Helen)!”, bringing the house down for his spin on the iconic line from Deewaar.

The highlight was Javed’s statement that he and Salim Khan would write one last script together now, but he stated that the moneys would have to be proportionate as they were the highest-paid writers in their time!