Javed Akhtar

One of Indian cinema’s most celebrated screenwriters and lyricists, Javed Akhtar was born in Gwalior in 1945 into a literary family. He arrived in Mumbai in the early 1960s and achieved breakthrough success as one half of the legendary Salim-Javed duo, revolutionizing Hindi cinema through cult classics like Sholay, Deewaar, and Zanjeer that popularized the angry young man archetype.

After the screenwriting partnership dissolved in 1982, Akhtar reinvented himself as one of Bollywood’s finest lyricists and continues as a poet and political activist. He has won five National Film Awards and sixteen Filmfare Awards, and received both the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, India’s highest civilian honours. He was the first Indian to receive the Richard Dawkins Award.

His children Farhan and Zoya Akhtar are celebrated filmmakers. He is married to legendary actress Shabana Azmi, daughter of noted Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi. Javed Akhtar remains a towering intellectual figure in Indian cinema and is widely regarded as one of the greatest screenwriters in the industry’s history.

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More on Javed Akhtar: en.wikipedia.org