‘They are badass guys, who made it happen’

Everyone has a favourite SalimJaved film Even Namrata Rao the director of Angry Young Men a docuseries that tells the story of Bollywoodrsquos most successful screenwriter duo Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar She says ldquoDeewar 1975 would be my favourite film but I also love Shakti 1982rdquo It certainly is hard to pick considering the duo delivered 22 blockbustersTogether the two writers shaped a glorious chapter of Hindi cinema Rao one of the industryrsquos most successful editors has turned director to bring that era alive again She worked on the Prime Video offering for three years It all started when Zoya Akhtar with whom she had worked on Lust Stories 2018 and Gully Boyrsquos 2019 songs shared Angry Young Menrsquos idea with her ldquoI was editing Lust Stories 2018 with Zoya She told me then that she had this idea I was very taken even then In December 2020 she asked me if I wanted to direct itrdquoThe stalwarts collaborated for more than 15 years giving us gems in Sholay 1975 Don 1978 Trishul 1978 and many more When making a documentary that charts their career how does one even start to make sense of such vast material ldquoWith a chart of their chronologyrdquo replies Rao ldquoFirst the anecdotes of their lives in the public domain were sought outmdashwhat was their process the interesting things they did together and how they parted But when we started interviewing them the story changed What was interesting was to tap into their personality They are cool guys they are badass They dreamt big and made it happen Like Javed saab says lsquoI didnrsquot think this wouldnrsquot happen I always thought this could go in my biographyrsquo I found it beautiful how they have aged from their young photos to the last photoshootrdquoAnyone who has seen the documentary will agree that it is true to its two subjects The fact that itrsquos not a piece of glorification comes from them ldquoThey symbolise the wisdom about success and failure and what it means as you age They know storytelling better than any of us So they have the ability to offer what I would want I remember when we shot the scene where Javed saab chokes up about his breakfast he then makes light of it within minutes saying lsquoAchcha abhi aapko shot mil gaya mere rone karsquo I was taken aback when Salim sir spoke about his mother because I got an insight into the vulnerabilities of this rough and tough man They own their lives their failures and successes and even that they fued up I discussed a lot about Sholay 1975 with themmdashhow they showed that a widow could be remarried but didnrsquot give her a happy ending They said lsquoYou canrsquot push the envelope all at the same time You first bring in the idea and then you normalise it The story of Sholay required a tragedy to make it as bigrsquordquoAfter 80plus interviewsmdashranging from Amitabh Bachchan to Karan Johar from Salman Khan to Farhan and Zoya AkhtarmdashRao had 800 hours of footage But she remained loyal to the storytelling over her favourite films The only criticism is that Angry Young Men doesnrsquot have much for those who know them already ldquoAt the end of the day the story represents them As they got candid I realised their mantra is bolo yaar aage dekha jaayega That rubbed off on me Irsquove never seen their kind of confidence in anyone That you can believe in something and stand by it whether it goes your way or not is what I loved about their storyrdquoWe end the interview with two important questions First why did she not show them together ldquoThat was always the idea We started in the pandemic when movement was limited It wasnrsquot easy to shoot two people of that age Then we fell into a pattern I enjoyed catching them in their space The last thing we shot was the photos when they went to Shivaji Park to inaugurate Diwali lighting We shot at Raj Thackerayrsquos houserdquo And is the last script of SalimJaved happening any time soon ldquoEveryone at the premiegravere had that question I can tell you they arenrsquot acting on it But they are angry young men who do what they want to maybe just as unexpectedly they will get back somedayrdquo