Earlier this year, in a chat with his son Arbaaz, lyricist Salim Khan said that the script of Zanjeer was ready, but no lead actor wanted to do it. He said that it was a matter of destiny because the script was ready with the dialogues. He further added that they had Dharmendra in mind, but he didn’t do it, nor did Dilip Kumar. He then mentioned that he and his former partner Javed Akhtar then finalised Big B after they were impressed with his performances