Salim turned 74 years old on November 24 (2009). The last time Salim saw one of Salman's films all by himself was 20 years ago when he started his career with Maine Pyar Kiya.
Salim said, "He held a special screening for me. Neither do I see my sons' films nor do I ask them to show me their work because I don't like to intrude in their work. They should learn from their mistakes, but this time Salman told me that he wanted me to see the film. I have not seen any of his movies privately after Maine Pyar Kiya. It has been a long time and I felt really touched. However, I just saw assembled footage of the movie because the shooting is just over and the post-production work is yet to begin. I liked his work. I think the film has a great canvas."
Salman said, "Dad has liked the way it has turned out. He said beta shukar hain yeh film tune nahin banaya. I agree with him. I couldn't have done even 10 per cent of what (Anil) Sharma has done."
Salim had seen the script of the movie while Salman was writing it. "I had given him tips and told him about the loopholes. He plugged them brilliantly," said Salim.
Salman added, "I wanted to direct this film. I had written the script even before Suryavanshi (a 1992 movie starring Salman and Amrita Singh), which I had done with Vijay Kumar Galani (also the producer of Veer). We didn't make it then because I knew it would have a huge budget. But now that we have finally made it, I think we should have made it then because the budget, even by today's standards, has turned out to be very high (approx Rs 50 crore)."
However, the script has changed a lot from what Salman had originally written. "We made those changes after some brainstorming. The dialogues have been made more contemporary though it's a period film. But I am happy the way it has shaped up," said Salman.
In the scripting stages, Salman had thought of casting Sanjay Dutt for the role. "If anybody could have replaced me in the film it would have definitely been Sanju. When I wrote the film I had actually thought of him playing my character," he said.
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