Javed Akhtar returns to screenwriting after over a decade: I’ve finished two scripts, third is in the works

Having worked in the Hindi film industry for over five decades, Javed Akhtar has seen and heard it all. The screenwriter and lyricist, best known for Border, Lagaan, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Talaash, Dil Dhadakne Do and more, is making a comeback to script writing. Having co written Luck by Chance (2009) with daughter, director Zoya Akhtar and last written the screenplay for Ekk Deewana Tha (2012), the 78 year old tells us, “After a long time, I have finished a couple of scripts.

It might be too soon to talk about it and take the names of people, but I found producers for it. I’ve done the narrations for the script and they like it. I am writing another script. I am also working on new songs.” He has worked on a song for the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Dunki and penned two songs, Sunoh and Va Va Voom, for the OTT movie The Archies.

Javed Akhtar makes a comeback to scriptwriting Wrap up the year gone by & gear up for 2024 with HT! Click here Lyricist Javed Akhtar has been busy working on new scripts Not one to pigeonhole himself, the Padma Shri (1999) and Padma Bhushan (2007) awardee is happy that there has been a change in the way lyricists get their due now, but he hopes for more.

“There is still some [pay] disparity that exists till now, but it’s not as much as it used to be once upon a time. The young songwriters, who have come up and are doing well, like Amitabh Bhattacharya or Irshad Kamil, are on the front line and are doing very well for themselves. They are also being paid decently.

I’m not saying that the lyricists are being paid what they deserve; they deserve much more and hopefully, it will keep on increasing. However, with regard to credit [for a song] that a lyricist should get, there is a lot left to be desired. If you watch any song on YouTube, you will find that they credit the music director and the singer, but the name of the lyricist, more often than not, is missing.

All lyricists should be credited, not only when your daughter is the producer of the project,” says the lyricist, who is the chairman of The Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS), which was recently ranked as the fourth largest Society in terms of revenue collected in the Asia Pacific region, according to the CISAC Global Collections Report 2023.

To ensure that lyricists are getting their monetary due, he has worked to help get things back on the right track. Javed says, “With the kind of royalties that we now collect, the income of the writers and composers have increased by many fold, too. There are many successful people, who don’t work anymore, but they can live off just the royalties that they make and it is good enough to feed them.” SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Share Via Copy Link Credit.