Salim Khan

Amitabh is one of the finest actors that ever came on the Hindi film scene.

His personality inspired the kind of films we wrote for him. We kept his personality, his talent and his acting ability in mind and wrote films around thise criteria.

These roles were not interchangeable. They were meant for him, written for him.

WE (Javed Akhtar and I) had a very easy working relationship with him.

Without a relationship, those films wouldn't have been possible -- you have to be emotionally involved with people to do good work for them.

He was always a thorough professional. He was so hardworking, he actually improved with every film.

The nicest thing was that he had so much faith in us.

A dialogue writer was once present on the sets while he was shooting. He told Amitabh, "There is something wrong with this word."

Amit immediately said, "If it seems wrong, they must've done it with something specific in mind. But if you want, I'll say it the way they have written it and the way you want it."

HE has enormous talent. Amitabh is not a fluke -- not an ordinary man who has sometimes done extraordinary work.

He is an extraordinary person who has always performed extraordinarily.

These kind of people only happen once in a while -- Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan in acting, Lata Mangeshkar in music, Sunil Gavaskar in cricket...

People like him aren't born again and again. If there were a lot of people with his mystique, he wouldn't stand out at all. If there were lots of good singers, Lata Mangeshkar wouldn't stand out or be what she is.

It is because they are rare that their charm lasts.

AMITABH often said modestly that our scripts were so good that anyone who acted in those films would have done well. I don't think that is true because we chose him out of all the actors present then. They were good actors, too.

But our first and last choice was Amitabh. He justified those films.

He was meant for them.

Salim Khan spoke to Lata Khubchandani