“Salim-Javed are not writers but salesmen.”

The formidable creative partnership of Bollywood’s iconic screenwriting duo Salim (Khan)-Javed (Akhtar) gave Indian cinema its mass-favourite films including ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Sholay’ and ‘Deewar’, however, an Indian film and TV writer claims that the veterans shouldn’t be called writers but good salesmen.

In a new interview with a YouTube channel, Indian film and serial writer Amit Aaryan, of sitcom ‘F.I.R’ fame, claimed that veteran screenwriters Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar plagiarized most of their work; therefore, should be called ‘copy-writers’ and not ‘writers’.

“I do not even consider Salim-Javed to be writers,” he said. “This might be taken as a controversial statement but yes the whole world seems to admire them but not me. They have only copied things in their entire life.”

“Salim-Javed are copywriters, not writers. Let me say why,” Amit Aaryan continued. “Their film Sholay, which is about this one man whose hands have been cut by dacoits. He wants revenge with the help of a man. It was released in 1975.”

Also Read: Javed Akhtar speaks up on ‘copying’ Western films for ‘Sholay’, ‘Zanjeer’

“Right before there was a film called Mera Gaon Mera Desh. Vinod Khanna played the dacoit and his name was Jabbar Singh. In Sholay, it became Gabbar Singh. Jayant played an army officer there, and here it was a policeman. There only one hand was cut here both his hands were cut. There Dharmendra took revenge, here it was Amitabh Bachchan,” he explained and claimed that the cult hit even has similarities with films including ‘Do Aankhein Baraah Haat’ and ‘Seven Samurai’.

He even drew comparisons between their film ‘Deewar’ and Dilip Kumar’s ‘Ganga Jamuna’.

To conclude, Aaryan labelled the veterans as good ‘salesmen’ as they are aware of how to do business well.