In a recent interview with comedians Sapan Verma, Shreeja Chaturvedi and Biswa Kalyan Rath, Javed Akhtar spoke about the feedback he gets on his writing from his children, Zoya and Farhan Akhtar. He shared that since Hindi or Urdu is his first language, unlike English, which is their first language, he has a deeper understanding of it. He feels this gives him an edge when it comes to the language used in their films. However, he said his children sometimes push back on his suggestions, calling his ideas too “traditional” or “outdated,” which they use to “blackmail” him into accepting changes.
“There are certain things which I understand about language, poetry, or metering, why this word is not right or wrong. I mean, their first language is actually English. They dream in English. But my first language is not English – first language is Urdu or Hindustani, whatever you may say. So I know a little more about the language in which they are making a film. But then they will say… They can tell me, ‘no, no, it’s too traditional. You know, it’s outdated’. There they can blackmail me. But anyway, it’s a give-and-take kind of a thing,” he said.
He went on to talk about the dialogues he has written for Zoya and Farhan Akhtar’s films. “25 saal mein ek script mein maine likhi hai – Lakshya for Farhan. Dialogues zarur likhe hain Zoya ke liye. Zoya ki jo pehli picture thi Luck By Chance mein usne mujhe kaha ke ‘You understand these people and these characters more than we do, toh you write the dialogues of Rolly, Romi.” Yeh sab jo producers the, yeh sab, toh unki language mujhe pata hai. Then after that, she didn’t ask me to write the dialogue. Then came Dil Dhadakne Do. Toh usmein ek dog tha jo sochta tha, toh woh kuttey ke dialogues usne mujhse likhwaya, baaki maine nahi likha, only the dialogue of the dog. So she said, ‘My father will write, nobody can think better than my father how a dog thinks,” he joked.
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