Aruna Irani appears as a guest dancer. Production Story and screenplay The film's screenplay, story and dialogues were written by Salim–Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar). The main inspiration for the film's plot was the 1961 Dilip Kumar film Gunga Jumna (1961), which had a similar premise of two brothers on opposing sides of the law, with the elder criminal brother as the main character. The role of Amitabh Bachchan is partially based on Karna from the Mahabharata whereas Shashi Kapoor resembles Yudhisthira from the Mahabharata. Deewaar is thus considered to be a spiritual successor to Gunga Jumna. Salim-Javed credited Gunga Jumna as well as Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957) as the main inspirations for Deewaar, which they described as a "more urban, much more contemporary" take on their themes; while Mother India and Gunga Jumna took place in a rural context, Salim–Javed reinterpreted their themes in a contemporary urban context with Deewaar. Amitabh Bachchan's character, Vijay, was loosely inspired by the real-life Bombay underworld gangster Haji Mastan. Vijay's story arc in the film parallels that of Mastan's life, such as the rise from a humble dockyard coolie worker to a powerful smuggler, and Mastan's rivalry with smuggler Sukkur Narayan Bakhia is similar to Vijay's rivalry with Samant (Madan Puri). Salim–Javed's screenplay had dynamic dialogues and incorporated a number of symbolic motifs. For example, the scene where the two brothers meet as adults takes place under a bridge, symbolizing a bridge forming between the brothers. Set in the Dharavi slums of Bombay, the film's story of gangsters in Dharavi was a critique of socio-political inequality and injustice in Bombay. The characterisations of the two brothers are sociologically contextualised to represent a form of urban conflict and drama, aimed at presenting a causal explanation for the sequence of events and Vijay's social alienation, with the narrative explaining his every action and decision, grounded in his memories and experiences. The script generally has an atmosphere of secularism, while incorporating subtle religious motifs. The mother Sumitra Devi (Nirupa Roy) and police brother Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) are religious Hindus, whereas the criminal brother Vijay (Bachchan) is generally not religious and "upset with God", yet he carries a badge numbered 786, which the Muslim Rahim Chacha (Yunus Parvez) points out to be a number of religious significance in Islam (representing Bismillah) and has its own sub-plot. The 786 badge plays a powerful and symbolic role