The Salim-Javed pair was a superhit at one time. The film whose story he wrote was guaranteed to be a superhit. At one time, their pair was charged more fees than the heroes. Sarhadi Lootera producer SM Sagar gave Salim-Javed their first break as screenplay writers.

This pair wrote the screenplay of SM Sagar's film 'Adhikaar' released in 1971, for which both of them got five thousand rupees, but did not get any credit. After this came the film Andaz, in which Salim-Javed got credit as a writer for the first time. Rajesh Khanna's film 'Haathi Mere Saathi', released in 1971, proved to be a milestone in the career of Salim Javed. This movie opened the doors of Hindi cinema for him.

After this film, the pair together produced many superhit films like Sita Aur Geeta, Zanjeer, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, and Deewaar. However, despite scoring back to back hits, there came a time when Salim-Javed had no work for 9 months. About what Javed Akhtar himself had told in the interview.

When the popular Hindi cinema writer Salim-Javed had appeared on Rajiv Masand's show many years ago, they themselves had revealed that despite being a huge success, no one gave them work for 9 months. He also told the reason for this. Javed Akhtar further said, "I told him that I will narrate the script to you, but you first listen to the price. You will say that I liked the script, that is why you are asking for more money, then you listen to the amount and then I will narrate the script, we are not asking for advance. As soon as the producer asked, I immediately said Rs 2 lakh, hearing which there was complete silence in the office. He called his partner upstairs and asked me to tell his partner also what I had told him, because no one believed that writers could take so much money. The film we got after 9 months, we did it for 2 lakhs, for the story of the second one we took 5 lakhs and for the third one we took 10 lakhs.

At that time, if you are the highest paid writer and you are getting around Rs 60-80 thousand, then you definitely look like a spoiled and egoistic person”. The Salim-Javed duo broke up after a long partnership of 21 years. Both of them parted ways in 1982 due to personal reasons. After their breakup, their films 'Zamaana' were released in 1985 and Mr. India in 1987. Both these films were hits. He also wrote the screenplay for Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini's film Baghban, but he did not get credit in it.