Javed Akhtar prides himself on the fact that he's never written any film or song which demeans or objectifies women. But in an interview with Mojo Story, he confessed to writing a problematic scene back in the 1970s, which he wouldn't do today.

Which is that scene?

“I've never written a film that I'd say I shouldn't have written. Nor I've written a complete song that I'd say I shouldn't have. But there's a scene. Like in Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Geeta (Hema Malini) is a very strong and aggressive girl. Then she's replaced by Seeta (also played by Hema Malini). Dharmendra comes to their house and starts eating. And he says, ‘Mausi, kya khana banaya hai aapne!’ Wo bolti hai, ‘Ye maine nahi banaya hai, ye toh Geeta ne banaya hai’ (Aunt, you've made such great food! She says, ‘I haven’t made it, Geeta has'). So he looks at Geeta with new respect. She's his business partner. She performs on the streets with him. He didn't have any respect for her till then. But when she made good food, then he respected her," Javed narrated.

“I wouldn't have written this scene today. I wrote that scene, I plead guilty. But I will not write this scene today,” Javed added. While his filmography as a screenwriter (as Salim-Javed) has been dominated by Amitabh Bachchan's Angry Young Man, Seeta Aur Geeta was arguably the only woman-led film he wrote with partner Salim Khan. It was directed by Ramesh Sippy.

Angry Young Men

In a new docu-series Angry Young Men on Prime Video India, women who've known Salim-Javed closely also called them brats at the prime of their career in the 1970s. These include Javed's current wife Shabana Azmi, ex-wife Honey Irani, and veteran actor Jaya Bachchan. Screenwriter Anjum Rajabali even described Hema Malini's character in Yash Chopra's 1978 film Trishul (written by Salim-Javed) as a CEO reduced to doing only song and dance.

In an exclusive interview, Angry Young Men director Namrata Rao also addressed the lack of women empowerment in the screenwriter duo's movies. "Even though I like Seeta Aur Geeta (1972) so much, I still didn't like the fact that when Geeta (Hema Malini) dreams about confessing her identity to Sanjeev Kumar, he slaps her. And I was thinking of how can she dream of getting slapped herself! I asked them this question, and they admitted that they didn't know any better. As Javed sahab said, "Main abhi Geeta ko aise bilkul bhi nahi likhta" (I wouldn't write Geeta that way today). Because when she comes into Seeta's home, she sees that Seeta is a very good cook, she stitches really well. She also wants to do those things, aspires to do those things, which is not who she really is. Besides, I imagine that it was also a different time, a different atmosphere."

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