Javed Akhtar is a well-known Hindi film lyricist, screenwriter and an urdu poet. In this interview he talks about Umrao Jaan, his father Jan Nissar Akhtar and his writing.
Mr. Akhtar originally planned on being a film director, and thought that screen writing might lead him to achieve his goal. Mr. Akhtar teamed up with Mr. Salim Khan and as Salim-Javed the duo wrote a string of blockbuster screenplays like Sholay, Deewar, Zanjeer etc.
Although reluctant at first, Mr. Akhtar started writing lyrics for Hindi songs pretty late in his career. His first film was Love Story 1942. Since then he has penned a string of memorable songs.
Earlier this year we also recorded a long interview with Mr. Akhtar's brother Dr. Salman Akhtar. You can listen to Dr. Salman Akhtar's interview here.
We recorded this interview with Mr. Akhtar on November 2, 2006 at the IAAC film festival in Manhattan, New York.
At the time of the interview Mr. Akhtar had not seen his new film Umrao Jaan, which was being shown at the IAAC film festival.
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