New Delhi. The screenwriter duo of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar have written many superhit films. Films like ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’ proved to be huge successes at the box office. However, ‘Iman Dharam’ written by Salim-Javed, released in 1977, flopped. The film also had negative reviews from critics. Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor worked in the movie. After the failure of ‘Iman Dharam’, Rishi Kapoor went to Javed Akhtar’s house and made fun of him.
Rishi Kapoor has mentioned this incident in his book Khullam Khulla. In his autobiography, the actor said, ‘I worked in Amar Akbar Anthony, which broke many box office records. Whereas Salim-Javed’s Imaan Dharam flopped badly at the box office. People started saying that Salim-Javed’s film flopped. This was the first time that a Salim-Javed film had flopped so badly, even though the film had stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar.
Taunt on Javed Akhtar
An assistant of director Manmohan Desai suggested to Rishi Kapoor that he should meet Javed Akhtar and celebrate his failure. Rishi Kapoor said, ‘He told me that Javed plays with everyone, let’s tease him for the sake of honesty. Javed Akhtar had an apartment in Bandstand and we reached there immediately. Javed Saheb welcomed us. He took out glasses and served us drinks. Then we started taunting them.
