Farhan Akhtar

ome of the all-time blockbusters of Indian cinema like Sholay, Deewar, Don and many more cult classics and his mother to is known for her landmark screenplays like Lamhe, Darr, Parampara and many others; thus Akhtar from a very young age was drawn close to the medium of cinema. Akhtar is also the great-grandson of famous Urdu poet Muztar Khairabadi and grandson of poet Jan Nisar Akhtar. Akhtar did his schooling at Maneckji Cooper school in Mumbai after which he went on to study law at HR College Mumbai which he shortly discontinued due to lack of attendance as he spent most of his time just watching movies before making his entry as an intern at the age of 17 into cinema.

Pre-cinema phase (1991 -2001 ) Akhtar after discontinuing his studies was left with nothing better to do other than watch cinema which was not accepted well by his parents even reaching a point where he ‘almost was thrown out of his own home’ as Akhtar remembers in one of his recent interviews. He had reached a phase where he had to fend for himself and discovering his severe passion for the art of cinema he decided to pursue a career in the movies at the age of 17 when he joined as an intern in the year 1991 for Yash Chopra’s cult romantic film Lamhe, where is mother served as a writer, which saw him working as an assistant cinematographer after which he assisted the director in the movie Himalaya Putra. Akhtar during that phase also worked for TV production houses after which he started his own production house Excel Entertainments with his childhood friend Ritesh Sidhwani for a short while. Groundbreaking directorial debut (2001) Farhan Akhtar after years of hard work and slogging made his directorial debut in the year 2001 under his own production house Excel Entertainments with the Coming of Age movie Dil Chahta Hai starring Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna which went on to create history for Akhtar. The film was a path-breaking cinematic outing that found huge followers, in the young generation especially. Dil Chahta Hai is still considered to be one of the best Hindi movies ever by many critics and even audiences alike for its fresh screenplay, lively yet sophisticated characters, a heart touching storyline, realistic situations, killer music album and background scores, flawless technical works, the kick-ass performances of the lead cast and of course the highly refreshing making style of Akhtar. All in all, Dil Chahta Hai was the dream debut for Akhtar as he was noted and appreciated by the entire industry for the genre-breaking attempt at cracking modern cinema at its very best.The film also won him many accolades and awards and even got the National Film Award for Best Hindi Feature Film for that year.The film which dealt with the story of three close friends who through their personal experiences discovered the true intensity and value of relationships in real life was also screened at many film festivals across the world. Dil Chahta Hai enjoys a cult following even today among all and is still considered Akhtar’s best work till date. Post Dil Chahta hai phase (2004 – 2006) After the dream debut Akhtar took, he went on a sabbatical only to come back in 2004 with the Hrithik Roshan starrer Lakshya which was penned by his father Javed Akhtar. The war film set in the backdrop of the 1999 Kargil war was the story of an aimless man turning into a responsible soldier. Even though not in line with the reception for earlier javed-akhtar was praised for his eloquent filmmaking style and treatment. Lakshya did not fare as expected back then but has now over time been declared an epic war drama cum coming-of-age movie by all which is still considered as Hrithik Roshan’s career-best performance to date. Akhtar then came up with the remake of the 1978 classic Don (also written by his father while in the Salim- Javed duo ) with Shahrukh Khan reprising the title role played by Amitabh Bachchan in the original, the movie became an instant classic and was a blockbuster hit of 2006 which made the character Don an iconic figure once again. Farhan Akhtar after Don had shifted his focus to production where he produced the critically acclaimed movie Honeymoon Travels Pvt.Ltd and it was also supposed to be his maiden film as an actor but later was replaced by Abhay Deol. Beginning of their acting career ( 2008 onwards ) Akhtar came out of the shell of a writer-director label in the year 2008 when he was cast in Abhishek Kapoor’s Rock On!! Which was his debut as an actor and he was also seen crooning for five of the chartbuster songs of the movie, he played a member of the struggling music band ‘Magik’ which proved to be a revelation at that point in time. Akhtar delivered a solid punch playing Aditya in the musical movie which was a trendsetter in Bollywood at that time, Farhan Akhtar financed that movie under Excel Entertainment and also wrote the dialogues. Rock On!! received a fantastic critical reception and the actor in Akhtar got the right exposure in the classic musical threat and singing too got well praised owing to his husky voice which turned out to be pure gold as far as the movie is considered. Farhan Akhtar had already established himself as a method actor with his own ways of working. Farhan Akhtar then came up with the lead role in his sister’s directorial debut Luck by Chance where he along with Hrithik Roshan portrayed the role of a struggling actor with much panache; his understated performance saw to it that the movie received positiveresponse from the critics circle as well. Akhtar then played the lead role in the yet-to-release movie The Fakir of Venice which was originally planned to be his acting debut even before Rock On!! but is still on hold under some legal issues and is said to be a 2016 release. After completing this he did Karthik Calling Karthik opposite Deepika Padukone also a testament to his talent, his edgy yet composed act was also accepted by the public and cinema-goers. But still, the movie failed to make a mark. Akhtar produced the movie Game which was a total disaster starring Abhishek Bachchan in the lead. His next production was Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara helmed by his sister alongside Hrithik Roshan and Abhay Deol which again saw him returning to his favourite genre; coming of age.The road movie set in Spain opened up a new facet in Farhan Akhtar’s acting career where he played a happy-go-lucky guy who was seen to be full on with joyful one-liners written by Akhtar himself and showed the audience for the very first time the comic side of the versatile actor. ZNMD was a super blockbuster and it received awesome responses everywhere. Returned to direction with the sequel to Don (2011) Akhtar took a break from acting to direct the sequel of the Don franchise with Shahrukh Khan yet again playing the title role. Don 2 was appreciated for its action sequences and its classy making style and eventually went on to be one of the highest grossers of all time even outside India but the critics felt that the movie was underwhelming in parts, to say the least, and thus had to settle with mixed reviews. Don 2 was an ambitious attempt by Farhan Akhtar to create a visual extravaganza out of the seemingly weak screenplay in hand, after which he came his way to the big league by making his presence known in hard-hitting roles. Farhan Akhtar was picked by Rang De Basanti fame Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra to play for the film on the sports legend Milkha Singh in his biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag for which he had to put himself under rigorous physical training and also had to research Milkha Singh to learn his real-life mannerisms to make the role convincing, the movie post-release became a huge turn around in Akhtar’s career as it became a commercial and critical Superhit. Akhtar’s dedication level and controlled performance were well received and it is undoubtedly his best as an actor to date.Akhtar also produced the sleeper hit Fukrey in 2013. After acting in the anthology movie Bombay Dairies Akhtar played the lead role in the rom-com Shaadi Ke Side Effects opposite Vidya Balan which did not get much attention. After the rather forgettable film Bangistan produced by Farhan Akhtar, he once acted in Dil Dhadakne Do along with an ensemble cast but got inconsistent reports next was cast alongside Amitabh Bachchan in the Bejoy Nambiar’s crime thriller Wazir which was out of Akhtar’s comfort zone yet he was praised for the subtle interpretation of the character and was consequently the very first hit movie of Akhtar in the year 2016. His latest release is the sequel, Rock ON 2 which is getting mixed reactions and he is all set for his next production Raees starring Shahrukh Khan in the lead role.