Javed Akhtar

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Javed Akhtar with his wife Shabana Azmi
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Javed Akhtar with his wife Shabana Azmi

Javed Akhtar (Urdu: جاوید اختر) (b. January 17, 1945) is an Urdu poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed.

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[edit] Life and Career

Javed Akhtar was born on January 17, 1945 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh to Jan Nisar Akhtar, a Bollywood film songwriter and Urdu poet, and Safia Akhtar, a teacher and writer. His lineage can be traced back to seven generations of writers. The highly respected Urdu poet Majaz was his maternal uncle and the works of his grandfather, Muzter Khairabadi, are looked upon as a milestone in Urdu poetry. Akhtar has one sibling; his younger brother is renowned psychoanalyst Salman Akhtar. After his birth, his parents moved to Lucknow, Punjab, and later to Aligarh. Young Javed Akhtar lost his mother at a tender age and his father frequently moved back and forth between Lucknow and Bombay, so he and his brother spent most of their time with relatives. At the age of eight, he was admitted to the sixth class in a well-known school of Lucknow, the Colvin Taluqdars' College. In his initial years, a "fierce looking" tutor used to come to his home in evenings and tutor him and his brother. This tutor was paid Rs. 15 every day. After completing his matriculation, Akhtar entered and began attending Safiya College in Bhopal where he earned a B.A.. He was a keen debater in college and won the Rotary Club Prize frequently. He arrived in Bombay on October 4, 1964. In his early years living in Bombay, he managed to write the dialogue for a minor film for Rs. 100. Occasionally, he used to work as an assistant.

Javed used to write his scripts in Urdu, which were then written out in Hindi by his assistant. Another assistant would type out a one line summary in English. His association with Salim lasted until 1980, after which Javed moved into writing lyrics for films.

Javed Akhtar's songs are rhythmic, reflective on life and very melodic and catchy.

[edit] Personal life

His father Jan Nisar Akhtar was also a famous Urdu poet. Javed's original name was Jadoo, taken from a line in a poem written by his father - "Lamba, lamba kisi jadoo ka fasana hoga". He was given an official name of Javed since it was the closest to the word jadoo.

Javed Akhtar was married to Honey Irani, a script-writer for Hindi films, with whom he had two children Farhan Akhtar, a film director, and Zoya Akhtar. He is also the uncle of director Kabir Akhtar. His marriage proposal to Honey Irani was made on his behalf by Salim to her mother Perin Irani. Salim gave an unflattering description of Javed to her and portrayed him as a drunkard who visited prostitutes. This incident was later parodied in one of Salim-Javed's most famous films Sholay, with the character of Jai proposing to Basanti's mother on behalf of his friend Veeru (played by Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and Dharmendra respectively).

After Javed's divorce with Irani, he married actress Shabana Azmi, the daughter of another famous Urdu poet, Kaifi Azmi.

[edit] Awards

Javed Akhtar has won 7 Filmfare Best Lyricist Awards for his Hindi lyrics. In the year 2004-2005, all the nominated songs were written by him.

He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1999.

[edit] Credits

[edit] Script

Movies written as part of the Salim-Javed team are marked as such.

[edit] Lyrics

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Chopra, Anupama, Sholay - The Making Of A Classic (Penguin Books) 2000 ISBN 0-14-029970-X

[edit] External links

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