Javed Akhtar often talks about how the industry reacted when he and Salim Khan faced their first flop with Immaan Dharam in 1977. Despite bringing back Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor, the film failed both critically and commercially. Many in the industry, frustrated by Salim-Javed’s constant success, reportedly celebrated their setback. Akhtar recalled that some even opened champagne to mark the occasion. Rishi Kapoor confirmed this in his autobiography, sharing that he visited Javed’s house after the flop just to tease him.
Rishi Kapoor wrote in his autobiography Khullam Khulla, “I starred in Amar Akbar Anthony, which broke many box office records while a film called Imaan Dharam, written by Salim–Javed and directed by Desh Mukherjee, bit the dust at the box-office. It was such a dud that people started saying, ‘Salim–Javed ki film flop ho gayi.’ It was the first time that a Salim–Javed film had failed so badly, and that too despite boasting a star cast that included Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar.”
Rishi Kapoor recounted how one of director Manmohan Desai’s fun-loving assistants suggested they visit Javed Akhtar to tease him about his flop, Immaan Dharam. The assistant said, “He said to me, ‘Saala, Javed sabki bajaata hai (Javed makes fun of all us), let’s go and needle him over Imaan Dharam.’ Javed had an apartment somewhere in Bandstand and we headed over immediately. Javed saab was welcoming. He brought out glasses and poured us all drinks. After a few rounds, we began taunting him.”
Rishi mentioned that Javed took their jokes well. They teased him about Immaan Dharam flopping, and Rishi kept bringing it up. He recalled, “‘Sarkar, Imaan Dharam toh flop ho gayi,’ we said. I drove the point home by repeating it a few times. I must give credit to Javed saab for handling it well. He turned around and observed, ‘Sarkar, hamari to ek film flop hui hai, tum ne to granth likhi hai flopon ki (We’ve had only one failure while you have a whole saga of setbacks).’”
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