Javed Akhtar

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Javed Akhtar (), (born 17 January 1945) is a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done 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.

Early life

He was born as Jadoo Akhtar in Gwalior State (now Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh) 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 an official name of Javed since it was the closest to the word jadoo. His lineage can be traced back to seven generations of writers. The Urdu poet Majaz was his maternal uncle and the works of his grandfather, Muztar Khairabadi, are looked upon as a milestone in Urdu poetry. By him, he is also connected to Maulana Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, the philosopher, poet, religious scholar who was one of the main figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and who edited the first works of Ghalib. Akhtar has one sibling; his younger brother is U.S.-based Indian psychoanalyst Salman Akhtar.

After his birth, his parents moved to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and later to Aligarh. Young Javed Akhtar lost his mother at a young age and his...
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