Javed Akhtar

Javed Akhtar was born in 1945 in Gwalior.[9] His father Jan Nisar Akhtar was a Bollywood film songwriter and Urdu poet.[10] His grandfather Muztar Khairabadi was a poet as was his grandfather's elder brother, Bismil Khairabadi, while his great great grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, was a scholar of Islamic studies and theology and played an important role in the First Independence Movement of India in 1857. Javed Akhtar's original name was Jadoo, taken from a line in a poem written by his father: "Lamha, lamha kisi jadoo ka fasana hoga". He was given the official name of Javed since it was the closest to the word jadoo.[11] He spent most of his childhood and was schooled in Lucknow. He graduated from Saifiya College in Bhopal.[12]

Akhtar was greatly inspired by Pakistani author Ibn-e-Safi's Urdu novels, which he grew up reading as a child. Akhtar was particularly influenced by the Jasoosi Dunya and Imran series of detective novels, such as The House of Fear (1955). He was influenced by their fast action, tight plots, economies of expression, fascinating characters with catchy memorable names, and speaking styles. Two of the earliest films he remembered watching both starred Dilip Kumar: Shaheed Latif's Arzoo (1950) and Mehboob Khan's Aan (1952). Other films that influenced him as a child include Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zameen (1953), Satyen Bose's Jagriti (1954), Shree 420 (1955) directed by Raj Kapoor and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Munimji (1955) directed by Subodh Mukherjee and written by Nasir Hussain, and Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957).[13]

Akhtar was raised an atheist.[20] He has brought up his children Farhan and Zoya Akhtar as atheists.[21]

Akhtar was married to Honey Irani, with whom he had two children, Farhan Akhtar, a film actor, producer, director[22] and Zoya Akhtar, a film writer, director and producer.[23] The father-and-son duo have worked together in films such as Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya, Rock On!! and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara with Zoya. Farhan was married to Adhuna Akhtar, a hair stylist.[24]

Javed married Shabana Azmi, the daughter of Urdu poet, Kaifi Azmi and later divorced Irani.[25] In February 2019, Akhtar canceled his visit to attend an event in Karachi organized by the Karachi Arts Council due to the Pulwama attack.[26]

Javed was awarded the civilian honour of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1999, followed by the Padma Bhushan in 2007.[1] In 2013, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu, India's second highest literary honour, for his poetry collection Lava.[27] In 2019, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Letters) by the Jamia Hamdard University.[28] In 2020 he was awarded the Richard Dawkins Award for being a "powerful force for secularism, reason, and human rights, challenging superstition and intolerance through his work in poetry, screenwriting, and political activism".[29][7]

• List of Urdu-language poets

• Chopra, Anupama, Sholay – The Making of a Classic (Penguin Books) 2000 ISBN 0-14-029970-X

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Javed Akhtar.

• Javed Akhtar Songs, Poetry, Biography
• Javed Akhtar at Kavita Kosh (Hindi)
• Javed Akhtar at IMDb
• BBC's Noel Thompson interviews JavedAkhtar on 4 September 2006