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Javed Akhtar

People Living

جاويد أختر

Indian poet, lyricist and screenwriter (born 1945) from Gwalior who rose to fame as half of the Salim–Javed duo behind Zanjeer, Deewaar and Sholay, became one of Hindi cinema's foremost lyricists, served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha (2010–2016), and in 2020 became the first Indian to receive the Richard Dawkins Award.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Poet · lyricist · screenwriter
Region
South Asia
Identifiers
Wikidata

Life in time

185018751900192519501975200020252050
The Colonial Era · The Contemporary Era · The Modern Era Contemporaries: A. K. Fazlul Huq · Abbas-Ali Amid Zanjani · Abbas Kiarostami · Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad · Abd al-Aziz al-Ghumari

Place in the story

    atheist-or-sceptic (self-identified)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    In the Modern Islam Browser

    Modern Islam BrowserFigures of the last fifty years

    Connections

    Explore the connections

    Spouse of
    Shabana Azmi

    People and things also explored

    Kaifi Azmi· The Reluctant Fundamentalist· Shabana Azmi

    Sources

    • Javed Akhtar — English Wikipedia
    • Javed Akhtar — Arabic Wikipedia
    • Javed Akhtar — Urdu Wikipedia
    • Javed Akhtar — Wikidata
    • Javed Akhtar — Center for Inquiry, Richard Dawkins Award release (2020)
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Javed Akhtar”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/javed-akhtar/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-06.

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    Wing

    People

    Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story.     Related

    Kaifi Azmi

    Indian Urdu poet, film lyricist and screenwriter (1919–2002), born Athar Husain Rizvi at Mijwan village in Azamgarh district, who joined the Communist Party of India in 1943, became a leading figure of the Progressive Writers' Movement, and carried Urdu poetry into Hindi cinema, writing the whole dialogue of Heer Raanjha (1970) in verse.