जावेद अख़्तर

Javed Akhtar (born 17 January 1945 in Gwalior) is an Indian lyricist, screenwriter, and poet, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Hindi cinema. Born into a family of Urdu poets — his father, Jan Nisar Akhtar, was a noted Hindi film lyricist, and his paternal grandfather, Muztar Khairabadi, was also a celebrated poet — Akhtar grew up in Lucknow and was educated at Colvin Taluqdars' College and Saifiya College, Bhopal.

He first rose to prominence as one half of the screenwriting duo Salim-Javed, alongside Salim Khan; their partnership from 1971 to 1982 produced landmark films including Zanjeer (1973), Deewaar (1975), and Sholay (1975), and reshaped the "angry young man" archetype in Indian cinema. After the duo went their separate ways, Akhtar turned to lyric writing and became celebrated over the following decades for literary, socially conscious song lyrics across numerous Hindi films.

Akhtar has won five National Film Awards and sixteen Filmfare Awards, and was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri (1999) and Padma Bhushan (2007). Through his marriage to actress Shabana Azmi, he is the son-in-law of the Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi; he was earlier married to screenwriter Honey Irani, with whom he has two children, filmmakers Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar.