Why did Bollywood's hit pair Salim-Javed split after 11 years of massive success

Salim–Javed revolutionized Indian cinema in the 1970s,transforming and reinventing the Bollywood formula, and pioneering the Bollywood blockbuster format.They are regarded as "Hindi cinema's greatest screenwriters".They worked together on 24 films during 1971–1987, of which twenty were commercially and critically successful films. They worked together on 22 Bollywood films, as well as two Kannada films. They are noted for being the first Indian screenwriters to achieve star status,becoming the most successful Indian screenwriters of all time.

While working together, Salim Khan was largely responsible for developing the stories and characters, which were considered unconventional at the time, while Javed Akhtar was largely responsible for writing the dialogues.

The duo made the writer's role popular with their names appearing in the posters of the films, and in some films they shared up to 25% of the profit. Their association lasted until 1982, when both decided to split after which Javed Akhtar moved into writing lyrics for around 80 films and scripts for 20 films from 1981 till present times, while Salim Khan wrote for 10 scripts between 1983 and 1996. They are credited together on two films after the split, Zamana (1985) and Mr. India (1987), due to these scripts being written earlier and made into film later after their split. In addition, their films had many South Indian remakes, which were often licensed directly from Salim–Javed, who owned the South Indian remake rights to their films.

Salim met up with Javed Akhtar for first time during the making of the film Sarhadi Lootera. Salim was a small-time actor, and Sarhadi Lootera was one of the last films he acted in before he turned his attention to writing. Javed was a clapper boy for the film and was later made the dialogue writer as director S.M. Sagar was unable to find a dialogue writer. While working in this film their friendship began. Salim Khan used to assist writer/director Abrar Alvi at first and Javed Akhtar used to assist Kaifi Azmi. Abrar Alvi and Kaifi Azmi were neighbours, from there on Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar became friends. Since their individual work was flopping both of them ventured into script writing and they decided to team up in 1971. Realizing the lack of writers in the movie making industry, Salim gradually learnt about story telling and writing techniques used in films, along with close friend Javed Akhtar and began writing short transcripts. The duo hit it off well and formed a script-writing team that came to be known as Salim–Javed. Salim used to form stories and plots whereas Javed used to help Salim with the dialogues for those films. They used to brainstorm and come to conclusions regarding the final draft of the film. Akhtar first joined Khan to develop the story for Adhikar and Andaz (both 1971). Initially in the 1970s there was no concept of having the same writer for the screenplay, story and dialogue nor were the writers given any credits in the title. Rajesh Khanna is credited with giving Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar their first chance to become screenplay writers by offering them work in Haathi Mere Saathi (1971)

Amitabh Bachchan – separated them into Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar once again.Salim–Javed approached Amitabh Bachchan with the script of a film that would eventually become Mr India. Bachchan declined, citing the invisible-man concept as a deterrent since – he believed – the audience came to see him in a film and not merely to hear him. Salim–Javed’s conviction that Amitabh’s voice would bring a lot of value to the role was not something the superstar shared. According to the book, Javed felt that the duo shouldn’t work with Amitabh any more after this "insult", but Salim was not in complete agreement with this suggestion. A few days after this, Javed was at Amitabh’s Holi party and told the star that Salim wasn’t keen on working with Amitabh any longer. This misunderstanding caused a consider considerable strain in the duo’s working relationship.Meanwhile, Javed had also started penning lyrics for films (Yash Chopra’s Silsila being his first) and he proposed to Salim that they write lyrics under their joint name as well. His plan was to offer a complete script and the song lyrics as a package from Salim–Javed but Salim refused. Salim says, "I don’t consider it right to take credit for something I didn’t do. Javed would write lyrics, have meetings with music directors and I would sit there contributing nothing. This was not acceptable to me." Besides, he explained further, if there was one aspect of their job to which he made no contribution, outsiders might assume that was the case with the other aspect as well.According to him, it was Javed who proposed that they split. Salim remembers that day vividly. They were at Javed’s residence, discussing and brainstorming on projects. After a full day’s work, when it was time for Salim to leave, Javed said, "I was thinking that maybe we should work separately." Salim took a few moments to digest this and replied, "I am sure you have said this after considerable thought and nothing I say will change your mind," and began walking towards his car. When Javed, as was his habit, joined him, Salim turned to him and said, "I am old enough to take care of myself," and sent him back.That was the exact point in time when the split happened