Javed Akhtar has been quite vocal about his battle with alcoholism and how it has had a negative impact on his life. In a recent chat, the veteran screenwriter said that if he could go back in time, he would tell his younger self to never drink as he wasted a decade of his life trying to battle the condition.
Javed Akhtar recently appeared on the Be A Man, Yaar podcast and was asked if he started drinking to suppress his emotions. He said, “Maybe there were bottled-up emotions, the anger, the bitterness. That is why after drinking I would become quite offensive, which I’m otherwise not, nor ever was. This would never happen in my sober moments. But peeke koi ek dusra devil nikal aata tha (when I was drunk, a devil would emerge from within me).
“The few good things I have done in life included quitting alcohol. July 31, 1991, was the last time I drank. I never took a sip of champagne after that. Not even during celebratory cheers,” he said. When asked what he would tell his younger self, Javed Akhtar replied, “I would tell him that the 20-25 years he drank alcohol, he shouldn’t do that.”
“Bohot time waste hua usmey. I think I wasted at least a decade of my life where I could do much more, but because of all this, I wasted it. I could have done so much, learn a musical instrument, could learn another language like French or Persian. I had the time and the facility, but I wasted my time, which is not good. I had to learn a lot more,” he added.
Speaking to Arbaaz Khan for The Invincibles recently, Shabana Azmi recalled how Javed Akhtar left drinking. She said, “He knew that if I go on like this, I won’t live for long and I won’t be able to do my work creatively… We were in a flat in London. He was stinking of alcohol and I said ‘Oh my god, this is going to be one of those trips. Very quietly he told me ‘Make me some breakfast’. He had breakfast and after that, he told me, ‘I am not going to drink anymore’.”
Shabana continued, “I didn’t say anything. I just said ‘Means?’ He said ‘I am not going to drink anymore’. He had never said this before and from that day, he has not touched (alcohol).” Shabana added, “It is impossible for me to have the kind of willpower he has,” calling his willpower “incredible”.
In a 2012 episode of Aamir Khan’s Satymeva Jayate, Javed had said, “I started drinking at a very young age of 19. When I came to Bombay after completing my graduation I started drinking with friends and later it became a habit. Earlier I didn’t have enough money, but then after my success, money flow was also taken care of. Then came a time when I would drink one bottle a day.”
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