Farhan Akhtar

Farhan Akhtar (born 9 January 1974) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, writer, dialogue writer, singer and songwriter who works in Hindi films.

He was very young when his parents divorced; his father married actress Shabana Azmi in 1984.

His mother retained the family home in Bandra Bandstand and raised her children there.

Akhtar studied at Maneckji Cooper School in Mumbai and then pursued a law degree at HR College, also in Mumbai.

Akhtar's father, a Muslim by birth and culture, is a socialist and has described himself as an atheist; Akhtar's mother, born into an Irani Zoroastrian family, is indifferent to religion, and was content to let her children grow up with no religion.

Akhtar has stated that he is an atheist.

Akhtar's family hails from Khairabad in the Avadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, and he comes from a long lineage of Urdu poets.

He is the grandson of Urdu poet Jan Nisar Akhtar and great-grandson of urdu poet Muztar Khairabadi.

On his mother's side, Akhtar is the nephew of the child actress Daisy Irani and the first cousin of choreographer Farah Khan and Sajid Khan.

Akhtar worked as an apprentice in film distribution and direction for Yash Chopra's Lamhe (1991) when he was 17 years old and later moved to an advertisement production house named "Script Shop" to spend an approximate 3 years there.

He also assisted Pankaj Parashar as a director in Himalay Putra (1997) before launching himself into direction and writing.

Born in Mumbai to screenwriters Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani after establishing a production company named Excel Entertainment along with Ritesh Sidhwani in 1999, made his directorial debut with the coming-of-age comedy-drama Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and received widespread critical acclaim for portraying realistic modern Indian youth in the film, which won the National Award for Best Hindi Film and the Filmfare Award for Best Film (Critics).

Akhtar married Adhuna Bhabani in 2000, after being in a relationship with her for 3 years.

They first met during the filming of his directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai, which also marked Bhabani's debut as a Bollywood hairstylist.

The couple have two daughters named Shakya and Akira.

Akhtar made his writing and directorial debut with the critically acclaimed coming-of-age comedy-drama Dil Chahta Hai (2001), produced by Excel Entertainment, a production company he established along with Ritesh Sidhwani in 1999.

It was shot over a period of three months in Sydney, Goa and Mumbai.

Due to its acclaim, he called it a "turning point" in his career.

The film dealt with the lives of westernised urban youth in Mumbai.

Akhtar had written the script based on his trips to Goa and New York City, as well as a narration of a story outline by a friend of his, Kassim Jagmagia, who would eventually become a co-producer at Excel Entertainment in the future.

It received international critical acclaim and attained an iconic status, with Akhtar receiving credit for starting a "new wave" in Indian cinema.

Critic Ziya Us Salam praised Akhtar's direction and commented for The Hindu: "In his maiden venture, Javed Akhtar's son shows enough glimpses of his pedigree to indicate that promise will attain fulfilment sooner than later."

Various award shows conferred accolades on the film and nominated it for several categories.

The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi for 2002, in addition to the Filmfare Award for Best Film (Critics).

It was also screened at the International Film Festival of India, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Austin Film Festival.

In the same year, he and his sister Zoya Akhtar assisted their father in writing the English lyrics of a song in Lagaan, for which the soundtrack was scored by A. R. Rahman.

Following this, he directed the cult war film Lakshya (2004) and made his Hollywood debut through the soundtrack of Bride and Prejudice (2004), for which he and sister Zoya Akhtar served as lyricists.

Akhtar's next project was the war drama Lakshya (2004), a film about an aimless youngster finally setting a goal for himself, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta.

Next came the commercially successful Don (2006), his third directorial venture, post which he directed a short film titled Positive (2007) to spread awareness on HIV-AIDS.

Although he initiated his acting career with a delayed release in the drama The Fakir of Venice, Akhtar's official screen debut came with the musical drama Rock On!! (2008) for which he won a second National Film Award for Best Hindi Film as producer and the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut for his performance.

He wrote the dialogues and produced for the critically and commercially successful buddy-road film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor; the same year, he directed a sequel to Don titled Don 2 (2011), which remains his highest-grossing film till date.

Akhtar then played Milkha Singh in the biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, earning him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

Later, he received praise for starring in the ensemble family comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015) and the crime thriller Wazir (2016).

On 21 January 2016, they announced their separation after 16 years of marriage.

He has since headlined the dramas Lucknow Central (2017), The Sky Is Pink (2019) and Toofaan (2021).

Farhan Akhtar was born in Mumbai, the second child of screenwriters Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani.

He has one elder sister, the writer–director Zoya Akhtar.

Their divorce was finalized on 24 April 2017, with Bhabani having custody of their children.

Akhtar started dating VJ Shibani Dandekar in 2018.

On 19 February 2022, they got married in a non-religious ceremony at his Khandala farmhouse.