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Javed Akhtar Breaks Down in Tears Recalling His Struggles: ‘Teri Aukaat Thi…
Javed Akhtar Breaks Down in Tears Recalling His Struggles: ‘Teri Aukaat Thi…
In an emotional segment of Vodafone Play’s Angry Young Men, legendary lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar finally broke his silence on the harsh realities that welcomed him when he migrated to Bombay.
The documentary is an in-depth look at the lives of iconic screenwriting duo Salim-Javed from Bollywood and their journeys through challenges to ultimate successes.
Javed Akhtar, an alumnus of Safia College in Bhopal, came to Bombay with dreams of working as an assistant director to the legendary filmmakers Guru Dutt or Raj Kapoor. “They were the directors I deeply admired at that time.
I was confident that I’d soon become a director myself,” Javed reminisces. Reality was far from this glamorous world of cinema that he had envisioned in his early days in the city.
“After staying at my father’s house for just five days, I ventured out on my own,” Javed shared. With no permanent roof over his head, he based himself at the houses of friends, railway stations, parks, studio compounds, and benches.
The struggle to survive was intense and Javed vividly recalls a time when he had nothing to wear. “My last pair of trousers was so torn that it was no longer wearable, and I had no other clothes,” he revealed. Having left his aunt’s home at 15, he was determined to make it on his own without seeking help from his family.
Javed’s wife, Shabana Azmi, added a heart-wrenching detail: there had come a time when three days had passed without eating. “It raining very heavily, he saw a faint light from some apartment. He saw that light and told himself, ‘I wasn’t born to die like this. This too shall pass,’” she recounted.
Reflecting on those testing times, Javed broke into tears while sharing the experience of deprivation that has left an indelible mark in his life: “If you ever have been deprived of food or sleep, it leaves a deep scar that never fades,” said Javed.
Even today, when he is staying at any luxuriant hotels, Javed gets reminded of those early days of struggle. “Sometimes when I am served breakfast on a trolley with butter, jam, half-fried eggs, and coffee, then I tell myself—Teri aukaat thi? Do I really deserve this? Even now it seems to me as if all this is not the breakfast for me,” he confessed.
