Unknown Facts about Haathi Mere Saathi: Although there are many writers in Hindi cinema who write amazing stories for films. But till date no one has done scripting like the Salim-Javed duo. Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar started their career as script writers but later Javed Akhtar also became a lyricist. Even the biggest stars used to act on Salim Javed’s scripts but Salim-Javed also followed the words of a superstar.
Yes, we are talking about 70’s superstar Rajesh Khanna, whom no director or producer could avoid, so how could a script writer have the guts. Rajesh Khanna signed a film by mistake and later read the script but could not understand it, let us tell you what happened next.
Salim-Javed changed the script at the behest of Rajesh Khanna
This incident is from the year 1970 when Rajesh Khanna signed the script of the film Haathi Mere Saathi without reading it. Years ago, Salim Khan narrated this incident in an interview. He had told that Rajesh Khanna was such a star that everyone listened to him. One night he called and asked to meet Javed Akhtar along with Salim Khan.
According to reports, Salim Khan told that when they went to meet Rajesh Khanna, he said that he needed money so he signed the film. But now he cannot do a film which is based on animals. Salim-Javed explained to Rajesh Khanna at that time that such a film on animals has not been made till now and people will like it.
After this, Rajesh Khanna said that it is okay but increase the love story part a bit. Then on his insistence, some changes were made in the script of the film and Rajesh Khanna agreed. According to reports, the film was released in the year 1971 and it was included in the highest grossing films of that year. One of the 8 back to back superhit films of Rajesh Khanna was also ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’.
Why did Rajesh Khanna need money?
It is said that even before Rajesh Khanna became a star, he had a bungalow in his mind which was situated on the seashore in Mumbai. That bungalow was later bought by Rajendra Kumar as well but due to some reason he had to sell it and Rajesh Khanna wanted to buy it. It is said that due to shortage of money, he signed many films whose script he had not read, however luckily those films proved to be superhits. Rajesh Khanna bought that bungalow which was named ‘Aashirwad’.