Artist Bio: Javed Akhtar

Original name: Jadoo
Date of Birth: 17 January, 1945
Place of Birth: Gwalior, India
Father’s name: Jan Nisar Akhtar
Mother’s name: Safia akhtar
Profession: Singer and lyrics writer
Genres: Ghazal

Javed Akhtar was born to a famous poet and songwriter, Jan Nisar Akhtar. Javed’s mother died when he was very young and his father had to travel continuously between Lucknow and Bombay. Due to this both Javed and his brother had to stay with their relatives. He completed his schooling from the Minto circle a renowned school in Aligarh, Lucknow and stayed there with his maternal aunt. He took his graduation degree from Safiya College in Bhopal. Javed Akhtar started his writing career by started writing for petty movies at just a cost of Rs. 100. Also he worked as an assistant under many popular script and dialogue writers. At personal front, Javed had his first marriage with Honey Irani. But she was ill-advised by Salim, saying that he is a drunkard and visit prostitutes due to which he they got separated. He had two children Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. Javed re-married the famous actress and daughter of Kaifi Azmi, a famous poet. Javed Akhtar has been honoured for his ultimate and unique compositions in many award ceremonies. He has received five National Film fare awards along with seven Film fare awards for Best Lyrics writer. Javed has been quite lucky and blessed to receive Padma Shri by Indian Government in the year 1999 and Padma Bhushan in the year 2007. Film fare has also admired with the Lifetime achievement award. Javed has worked in many projects with his son Farhan Akhtar, an established director of the industry. He has written scripts of many block buster movies directed by his son, like Rock on, Dil Chahta Hai and Lakshya. Javed initially used to write scripts in Urdu, which was then translated in Hindi by his assistant. Javed made an attempt of writing his own scripts and was successful in touching viewer’s chord. Songs written by Javed are meaningful and quite appealing. He has also written for many non filmy albums and was voiced by many lead singers such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Jagjit Singh. Javed is also one of the members in the advisory group of Asian Academy of Films and Television. At present, he is a judge at the famous singing reality show ‘Indian Idol 4’ having Anu Malik, Sonali Bendre and Kailash Kher as his co-judges.