“Every generation has a totally different voice”: Javed Akhtar

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Javed Akhtar has written the stories of many Bollywood films, penned down lyrics to some of the hip Bollywood songs and has been a renowned poet for many years now.

In an exclusive interview with ITV Gold, Akhtar spoke about the significance of words and the role of oneself in the world.

“Words carry culture. Language is a vehicle that carries culture, tradition and ultimately your roots and identity. The moment you cut a person from a language, the person does not only lose a language but loses a complete tradition, a culture, a civilization, an identity and their roots; that all goes away,” Akhtar said.

When asked about his view on writing and how coming from a family of writers affects his own, Akhtar said that he does not like bragging about it as it would just make him an echo and not a voice.

He explained this phenomenon further by comparing his own writing to the writing of his children, Bollywood directors Zoya Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar, saying that “every generation has a totally different voice,” and that the three of them have accomplished in doing so.

Akhtar went onto talking about Young India and discussed the upcoming elections adding how a “government is the shadow of a society’s thinking.”

Akhtar also told the audience that when you have success and happiness, then only you have gained that peace and satisfaction in your life and that one should create their own purpose in life.

“The minute you were born, you got a membership to a club called human society. This club is perhaps 10,000 years old and you get a temporary membership in that club. Member can come and go but so many of them in the last so many millenniums have contributed something or the other. Everything has been invented or made by someone and you should respect their contributions as they have made your life easier to live,” he said.

Knowing that many Indian American writers and musicians look up to Akhtar, ITV Gold asked him for some advice, for which he said that in order to achieve something one must learn and study it.

“If you want to become a writer then read other famous people’s work, if you want to become a musician then take out the time to learn different styles of music such as Indian Classical, European Classical or even Latin music. When you do this, it will be easier to pursue your work,” he added.

Here is the full interview: