Javed Akhtar is a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Akhtar is a mainstream writer and some of his most successful work was carried out in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed. Akhtar continues to be a prominent figure in Bollywood and is one of the most popular and sought-after lyricists.
Background
He was born in Gwalior to Jan Nisar Akhtar, a Bollywood film songwriter and Urdu poet, and singer Safia Akhtar, a teacher and writer.His 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 the official name of Javed since it was the closest to the word jadoo.
Having lost his mother while very young, Akhtar's early years were spent in Lucknow, Aligarh and Mumbai, mostly with relatives.
Hailing from a family of freedom fighters, Javed Akhtar is the great great grandson of Allama Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, a notable name in the Indian Freedom Struggle and one of the main figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 who was hanged at the Kālā Pānī prison in 1861.
Education
He studied in Colvin Taluqdars' College in Lucknow and the Minto Circle where he completed his matriculation from Aligarh Muslim University. After matriculation, Akhtar acquired a B.A. from Saifiya College in Bhopal. A gifted debater in college, he won the Rotary Club Prize frequently.
Career
Akhtar arrived in Mumbai on 4 October 1964. In his early years there, he wrote the dialogue for a minor film for Rs. 100. Occasionally, he worked as an assistant. He got a job as a scriptwriter on Yakeen which flopped. Akhtar then joined with his friend Salim Khan to develop the story for Adhikar. Salim-Javed were hired by G. P. Sippy's Sippy Films as resident screenwriters and produced the screenplays for successful films like Andaz, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay and Don.
Akhtar 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 Khan lasted until 1980. After this Akhtar wrote some scripts on his own but mostly moved into writing lyrics for films where he achieved success.
Akhtar has attempted more serious Urdu poetry aside from writing lyrics for movies. A major set of his works were compiled in Tarkash, which was rendered into audio in his voice. Singers such as the late Jagjit Singh and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan have sung some of his non-movie poetry.
Javed Akhtar was a judge alongside Anu Malik, Kailash Kher and Sonali Bendre on India's singer hunt Indian Idol 4. He is on the advisory board of the Asian Academy of Film & Television.
Akhtar was nominated to the Parliament upper house Rajya Sabha on 16 Nov 2009.
Religion
Akhtar was born into a Muslim family, but later stated he was an atheist in his speech "Spirituality, Halo or Hoax".