Javed Akhtar, an Indian poet, lyricist, screenwriter, and political activist, was born on January 17, 1945. He is now 76 years old. He has won five National Film Awards for his work in Hindi cinema, as well as the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007, two of India’s highest civilian awards.
In the pair Salim–Javed, Akhtar rose to prominence, and his debut as a screenwriter came with 1973’s Zanjeer. He went on to compose the films Deewar and Sholay, both of which were released in 1975 and gained a cult following as well as having a huge cultural impact. He went on to win the National Film Award for Best Lyrics five times and the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist eight times for his work as a lyricist.
Akhtar was a member of the Rajya Sabha and campaigned for the Communist Party of India (CPI) as its candidate in the 2019 Indian general election. He earned the Richard Dawkins Award in 2020 for his efforts, and he was chosen as a recipient of the Richard Dawkins Award.
Jan Nisar Akhtar, his father, was a Bollywood film composer and Urdu poet. His grandpa, Muztar Khairabadi, was a poet, as was his grandfather’s older brother, Bismil Khairabadi, and his great great grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, was an Islamic scholar and theologian who was a key figure in India’s First Independence Movement in 1857.
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