MUMBAI: Writer Javed Akhtar talked about his hardships in the film industry while shedding tears, saying he still remembers the day he went without food because he didn't have enough money to buy a meal. As he talked about the pleasures he can now afford, he also recalled the appalling conditions in which he moved to Mumbai as a teenager. He also displayed signs of impostor syndrome.
In the recently released show with Salim Khan, Akhtar recalled his early days of extreme struggle. He said, “I decided that after my graduation, I’d go to Bombay and work as an assistant director, hopefully with either Guru Dutt or Raj Kapoor. I was sure that after a couple of years of doing this, I’d definitely become a director.”
He further said, “I was in my father’s house for exactly five days, and then I went on my own. I lived with some friends, slept on railways stations, parks, studio compounds, in corridors, on benches, and so on. Some days, I’d walk all the way from Dadar to Bandra, because I didn’t have money for bus fare. Some days, it would strike me that I hadn’t eaten for two days. I would always think to myself that if one day a biography were to be written about me, this would make for an incredible moment.”
Javed’s wife Shabana said, “One day, he realised that he hadn’t eaten for three days. He saw a light in someone’s house, and thought to himself, ‘This is not how I die. Times will change’”
He added, “There are two kinds of deprivation – of sleep and of food – that leave a mark on you that you never forget. I stay in five-star hotels, in huge suites with large double beds. And I look back on how I came to Bombay, in a third-class compartment that didn’t even have any room to sit. I remember how I was deprived of sleep, and how tired I was. All I needed was a fraction of the room I had now. They bring out so much food, and I always wonder where this food was on the days I had nothing to eat. To this day, I feel like I haven’t deserved this food. I can’t get over that.”
The lyricist concluded, “One day, I realised I have nothing to wear. Now, you’ll wonder how that’s possible. But that’s how it was. I had worn out my last pair of trousers, my only pair of trousers…” He said that he never thought of asking his family for money. “Which family? I had left all that behind, I never looked back, nor did I ask them for anything. My aunt raised me, and when I walked away at the age of 15, I walked away for good,”
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Credit-IndianExpress
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