In a moving segment from the Angry Young Men documentary on Prime Video, legendary lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar opened up about the harsh struggles he faced after moving to Bombay. The documentary delves into the lives of Bollywood’s one of the most influential screenwriting duos Salim-Javed, exploring their journeys, challenges, and eventual triumphs.
Javed Akhtar, who graduated from Safia College in Bhopal, came to Bombay with dreams of working as an assistant director under the legendary filmmakers Guru Dutt or Raj Kapoor. “They were the directors I admired a lot at that time. I was sure I’d become a director myself in a short time,” Javed recalls. However, the reality of his early days in the city was far from the glamorous world of cinema.
“I was in my father’s house for exactly five days, and then I went on my own,” Javed shared. With no steady place to stay, he lived with friends, slept at railway stations, parks, studio compounds, and on benches. The struggle for survival was intense, and Javed vividly remembered a particularly difficult period when he had nothing to wear. “My last trouser and the only trouser was torn to the extent that it couldn’t be worn anymore. And I had no other trousers,” he said. Having left his aunt’s house at 15, he never asked his family for help, determined to make it on his own.
Shabana Azmi, Javed’s wife, added a poignant detail, revealing that there was a time when he hadn’t eaten for three days. “It was raining heavily, and from an apartment in a nearby building, he saw a faint light shining. He saw that light and said to himself: ‘I wasn’t born to die like this. This time shall pass.'”
Reflecting on those difficult times, Javed broke down in tears and shared how the experience of deprivation has left a lasting impact on him. “If you have been deprived of food or sleep in your life, it leaves a deep mark on you that you’ll never forget,” he said. Even now, when staying at luxury hotels, Javed is reminded of those early days. “Sometimes I’m served breakfast on a trolley, with butter, jam, half-fried eggs, coffee, and I think to myself: ‘Teri aukaat thi? Do I deserve this?’ Even now, it feels like this breakfast isn’t meant for me,” he says.
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