Entertainment News Desk – Poet, Lyricist, Screenwriter and more… Javed Akhtar is a living legend that the Indian film industry is proud of. He not only touched the hearts of many with his heart-touching writings but also gave new meaning to Bollywood songs. Javed Akhtar is also a poet and his poetry has often touched our hearts and taken Bollywood songs to new heights. Javed Akhtar was born on 17 January 1945 in Gwalior, Central India Agency. He rose to fame as a screenwriter with Salim Khan. This writer duo, popularly known as Salim-Javed, also wrote memorable scripts for some prestigious films.
Javed Akhtar’s love life
His first marriage was to actress Honey Irani, with whom he has two children – Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. Later he met Shabana. Both became friends. When Kaifi Azmi came to know about this, he was initially reluctant because Javed Akhtar was already married. He did not want to become the cause of rift between Javed and his wife. However, when Javed Akhtar got divorced, Kaifi Azmi accepted the proposal of marrying her daughter to the screenwriter.
Javed Akhtar won awards for these films
Javed has also written many evergreen songs for films like ‘Silsila’, ‘Saath-Saath, Mashaal’, ‘Duniya’, ‘Arjun’ and ‘Saagar’. He has won the ‘Best Lyricist’ award for films like ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, ‘Jodha Akbar’, ‘Rock On’ and ‘Om Shanti Om’. He was successful in winning this award again for films like ‘Swadesh’, ‘We the People’, ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ and ‘Lagaan’, ‘Once Upon a Time in India’.
You would hardly know these things about Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar’s real name is Jadoo, which is taken from the line of a poem written by his father ‘Lamha Lamha Kisi Jadoo Ka Fasana Hoga’.
Javed and his first wife Honey Irani, whom he met on the sets of ‘Sita Aur Geeta’. The birth dates of this couple are on the same day i.e. 17th January.
Javed Akhtar is an atheist and has raised his children Farhan and Zoya Akhtar as atheists.
Javed Akhtar used to help Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi. After divorce from Honey Irani, he married Kaifi’s daughter Shabana Azmi.
When Javed Akhtar reached Mumbai in 1964, he was so poor that he did not even have food and a place to stay. He had to struggle a lot to get work in the Hindi film industry. They slept under trees or in corridors, until they took shelter in Jogeshwari’s Kamal Amrohi studio.
Salim Khan first met Javed Akhtar during the film ‘Sarhadi Lootera’, where Salim was an actor and Javed was a clapper boy. Later, Javed was made the dialogue writer of the film, because director SM Sagar could not find any dialogue writer.
In the 70s, screenwriters were not credited on film posters. Not getting proper recognition, Salim and Javed decided to write their names on the posters of the films in which they have worked.
Javed Akhtar has won the Filmfare Award fourteen times – seven times for Best Screenplay and seven times for Best Lyrics. He has won the National Award five times. In 2013, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu, India’s second highest literary honour, for his poetry collection ‘Lava’.
When Javed Akhtar came to Mumbai for the first time
In 2020, Javed recalled his journey and the day he came to Mumbai for the first time. He tweeted, “It was October 4, 1964 when I came to Bombay. In this long journey of 56 years, there have been many twists and turns, many roller coasters, ups and downs, but overall it has been in my favor. Thank you.” Mumbai, thank you film industry, thank you life, you all are very kind. Javed also won several National Awards, including Best Lyricist for three consecutive years – Saaz in 1997, Border in 1998 and Godmother in 1999. He received India’s two highest civilian awards, the Padma Shri as well as the Padma Bhushan.
