Javed Akhtar remembers days when he had nothing to eat and collapses: This leaves deep scars on a … (Credits: Instagram)
Javed Akhtar is currently preparing for his upcoming limited series with his old partner Salim Khan, Angry young man. At a recent event, the legendary lyricist and screenwriter spoke about the tough struggles he had to go through after moving to Bombay.
His struggle diaries also include the time when he had nothing to eat or clothes to wear. He breaks down as he recalls those tough times and his fans are in awe.
Javed Akhtar tells his stories about the struggle
Javed Akhtar began his journey to Bombay with a dream of working as an assistant director to legendary filmmakers Guru Dutt or Raj Kapoor. He said, “These were the directors I admired a lot at that time. I was sure that I would become a director myself in a short time.”
He added: “I stayed at my father’s house for exactly five days and then I left alone. Since I had no permanent place to stay, I lived with friends, slept at train stations, in parks, on studio lots and on benches. The struggle for survival was intense and I vividly remember a particularly difficult time when he had nothing to wear. My last pair of trousers and the only pair of trousers I had were so torn that I could no longer wear them. And I had no other trousers.”
Shabana Azmi on Javed Akhtar’s difficult times
Akhtar’s wife Shabana Azmi also spoke of the time when he had nothing to eat. She said, “It was pouring with rain and he saw a faint light shining from an apartment in a nearby building. He saw this light and said to himself, ‘I was not born to die like this. This time will pass.'”
Now, after years of struggle, when Javed Akhtar finally made his breakthrough, he still hasn’t forgotten what he went through. “When you have to go without food or sleep in your life, it leaves a deep mark that you never forget. Sometimes breakfast is served to me on a trolley, with butter, jam, half-fried eggs and coffee, and I think to myself, ‘There is no such thing‘Do I deserve this?’ Even now it feels like this breakfast wasn’t meant for me,” he concluded.
