We tell Abbas Tyrewala, we are curious about Jim’s lines. The villain, played with easy amusement by John Abraham, has the best of the lot. He starts off saying something, and then by the end of it, the punch line has changed.

“We created an erudite villain, with so much sympathy built from his back story [he and the family are abandoned by Indian authorities]. Today, he is a sociopath. So, it’s hard not to hate him. The character is fascinating, and it’s him I wrote the lines for, not John per se. After that’s done, I think of John, so that can I embellish the lines in some way. That’s why a sense of surprise in the dialogues exists. The mistake some in Bollywood make is to think of the actor, not character. Let’s be excited about the character.”

Tyrewala’s excitement shows. Jim’s dialogues are amusing and relaxed all of once. “He has turned his pain into mockery for the world. It’s his justification for everything that he does.”

To us, the lines also appear to match Gen Z lingo without being corny. “Sometimes, jyada ho sakta hai. You could cross over. But that’s why we rewrite. Audiences are coming to the film to be entertained, so you must strike a balance. Over time, experience teaches you to be in control of your craft.”

It’s this experience that saw him deftly handle the scenes where both Khans—Salman and Shah Rukh—share the screen. How does one not overshadow the other? “It’s delicate. It’s Shah Rukh’s film. It’s called Pathaan. But it’s Salman [who is also in the frame], and Tiger [Salman’s character from his spy franchise] has taken the trouble to come here [in this film]. We had to make sure that the audience didn’t feel cheated. It’s not about catering to actor egos, it’s about the audience experiencing the joy of watching the two interact. I followed Aditya’s and Siddharth’s brief and wrote words that would enhance what they wanted to do with those scenes.”