As the family kicks off three-day celebration to mark his 75th birthday, legendary writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar thrilled to have a photo exhibition dedicated to him
Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; January 14, 2020)

Shabana Azmi, who was stationed in Budapest over the past few weeks for the shoot of Steven Spielberg's web series, has returned to the bay in time for husband Javed Akhtar's big day. The noted writer-lyricist turns 75 on Friday, and a string of celebrations is in order for the milestone birthday.

mid-day has learnt that an exhibition of Akhtar's rare photographs, posters and paintings, titled The World Of Javed Akhtar, and curated by Pradeep Chandra and SMM Ausaja, will be held at the Nehru Centre in Worli. While Farhan and Zoya Akhtar will inaugurate the exhibition dedicated to their father tomorrow, it will be open to the public from January 17 to 20. Considering Akhtar has changed the vocabulary of Bollywood with his stories and songs, it is only fitting that the inaugural event tomorrow will mark the launch of a limited edition of The Javed Akhtar Pen — a creation of Abhishek Haritwal and Symmetry. Besides unveiling the signature pen, the celebrated writer will take to the stage to discuss his journey in the industry and his role in changing the narrative of Hindi cinema, with Nasreen Munni Kabir.

"I am nervous, especially about the exhibition because they are calling it The World of Javed Akhtar. I want to see how many people are interested in my life," jokes the legendary lyricist, adding that he was pleasantly surprised to see that the curators had sourced rare photographs from his heydays. "Some of the photographs go back to my school days. I am wondering where they sourced them from."

While Azmi plans to ring in Akhtar's birthday with an intimate '70s Bollywood-themed bash on Thursday, Zoya and Farhan will host a grand soiree on Friday at a suburban five-star that will see the who's who of the industry in attendance. "We want to salute the man that is Javed Akhtar — his indomitable will, tenacity, wisdom, intellect, and of course, his legendary sense of humour! Friends and family are trooping in from different parts of the world for the bash," says an ecstatic Azmi.


The customised Javed Akhtar Pen

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 3, 2015)

Mahesh Bhatt had planned his 1993 gangster drama, Sir, with Sadashiv Amrapurkar playing the main baddie, Chhappan Tikli, and Gulshan Grover as his demented but dangerous younger brother, modeled on a character from The Godfather series. But just three days before the film was to roll, Sadashiv pointed out to Bhatt that in a crowd of 'serious' actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal and him, a 'commercial' actor like Gulshan stood out and should be replaced.

When prodded, Bhatt though reluctant to speak ill about someone who is no more, admitted that it was true. "The facts don't change," he sighed. "It's true that after the success of Sadak and his character Maharani, Sadashiv had begun to feel that Gulshan was not on par with the so-called talent quotient of the rest of the cast, a statement which I thought was somewhat pompous and reeked of arrogance."

Unaware of this, Gulshan had got himself clicked wearing his son's bermudas and came to Bhatt with the photographs wondering if he'd got the 'look' of his character right. He was told that he had been elevated in the cast and would be playing Chhappan Tikli. "The set at Mukesh Mills is ready. We start shooting the day after tomorrow," Bhatt informed the astounded actor.

"After Sadak, Sadashiv was a saleable name with distributors and it was unthinkable for me to replace him. But the Bhatts have never been against 'commercial' actors who they believed were more popular with the audience," points out Gulshan, who got a two-hour briefing during which Bhatt told him that he didn't want him to play Chhappan Tikli like a regular villain. Instead he was a hero determined to avenge the death of his brother, who was stripped and hanged, by doing the same to rival ganglord Veljibhai's daughter. "The character I was to play earlier, was turned into a woman, Sweety, played by Sushmita Mukherjee, and I was told to use my 'genius quality' to translate the information into a visual."

Gulshan obliged by doing a photo shoot with Times of India photographer, Pradeep Chandra, wearing his own designer suits and getting his make-up man, Suresh Sharma to create the pox marks on his face using cosmetics.

"I realised instantly that unlike Ram Lakhan's outlandish, in-your-face bad man, Chhappan Tikli was more subtly menacing, someone you would steer clear of despite the outward gloss," says Gulshan, who incorporated Mahesh Bhatt's mannerism of whipping off his glasses when angry into the character.

The glasses, he used in the film, were a gift from an actress friend. And the only scene where he takes them off carefully is when 'Sir' Naseer comes to him proposing a truce with Veljibhai and Chhapan Tikli tells him quietly, "Tu yahan se vapas jayega kaise, yeh socha hai." After the scene, Naseer who was a dear friend and respected Gulshan as an actor, applauded his performance.

The quiet menace was what made Chhappan Tikli memorable. Gulshan remembers a scene where he meets with his six-feet plus henchmen, reprimanding them for losing to a rival. The scene that had been penned was a cliche which had him raging, ranting and firing bullets in the air randomly. Gulshan wasn't impressed and nor was Bhatt who told him to throw the page away and create something new.

"He told me I should be feeling as frustrated as a director whose leading man after giving them a day to complete his portions hasn't turned up all morning but whose unit was still happily sitting down to lunch, wondering what was for dessert. From that analogy, we worked out a scene whereby Chhapan Tikli quietly sits down to lunch with his men and then suddenly overturns the table asking them how they can eat and digest the food knowing what has happened before," reminisces Gulshan.

That gave not only his men but the audience plenty of food for thought.