Javed Akhtar - Career

Career

Akhtar arrived in Mumbai on 4 October 1964. In his early years there, he wrote the dialogue for a minor film for Rs. 100. Occasionally, he worked as an assistant. He got a job as a scriptwriter on Yakeen which flopped. Akhtar then joined with his friend Salim Khan to develop the story for Adhikar. Salim-Javed were hired by G. P. Sippy's Sippy Films as resident screenwriters and produced the screenplays for successful films like Andaz, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay and Don.

Akhtar used to write his scripts in Urdu, which were then written out in Hindi by his assistant. Another assistant would type out a one-line summary in English. His association with Salim Khan lasted until 1980. After this Akhtar wrote some scripts on his own but mostly moved into writing lyrics for films where he achieved success.

Akhtar has attempted more serious Urdu poetry aside from writing lyrics for movies. A major set of his works were compiled in Tarkash, which was rendered into audio in his voice. Singers such as the late Jagjit Singh and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan have sung some of his non-movie poetry.

Javed Akhtar was a judge alongside Anu Malik, Kailash Kher and Sonali Bendre on India's singer hunt Indian Idol 4. He is on the advisory board of the Asian Academy of Film & Television.