Lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar was in for a pleasant surprise on Thursday when he received a letter informing him of being conferred with an honorary doctorate by the SOAS University of London. Akhtar will be awarded a Doctor of Literature (honoris causa) in recognition for his significant contribution as a poet, lyricist, screenwriter, and political activist by the university this September.

Reacting to the news the veteran writer said, “It has come as a surprise and a very pleasant one too. The University of London is one of the most respected institutions and for them to be confer this doctorate on me is a big honour for me. They have invited me to accept the doctorate in September and I shall definitely be going for it.”

On the work front, too, Akhtar is busy and much in demand. Apart from writing songs and dialogues for the Suhana Khan, Agastya Nanda and Khushi Kapoor-starrer The Archies, the writer is also ready with a few scripts which he wrote during the pandemic. “During the pandemic, I took advantage of the time at hand and wrote a few scripts. Now I am marketing those stories and looking for someone who will make those films,” said the writer.

Writing the dialogues for the film The Archies proved to be a big challenge for the 78 years-old Padma Bhushan awardee. “Writing for the film was a whole new experience for me. It had to be in a comic book format, which was something I had never done before. Mujhe apni writing pe bahut saare restrictions lagane pade to write for The Archies. Since the film is based on a comic book and has young characters, the dialogues could not have been too mature or have chaste Urdu words that I normally use. It had to be very today’s language, casual and yuppy, as one would say. It was a challenging experience, but one I really enjoyed,” he summed up.