Veteran screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar is one of the most prominent personalities in Hindi cinema. Akhtar received recognition in Amitabh Bachchan’s 1973 film Zanjeer in which he collaborated with legendary screenwriter Salim Khan. Salim-Javed worked in several movies together including Sholay, Deewar, and others. Akhtar recently weighed in on starry tantrums and rising entourage costs by saying that hairstylists charge Rs 75,000 per day. The legendary lyricist quipped that he would have learned hairstylist skills.
During his latest appearance on Chill Sesh, a comedy show by comedian Sapan Verma, Javed Akhtar shared his experience of witnessing starry tantrums on the film sets. Akhtar compared today’s situation with older times and noted that he hears stories about how stars require three vanity vans on the sets these days.
The veteran screenwriter continued that one vanity is for their workout and two vans are for preparing meals and eating food. The lyricist added that today’s stars have a staff of 18-19 people.
“Unka woh aadmi jo baal thik karta rehta hai, unka woh 75,000 per day…arey yaar, humein maloom hota toh hum wahi kaam seekhte (They have a hairstylist who charge Rs 75,000 per day. If I had known about the exorbitant fee that stars pay, I would have learned hairstylist’s skills),” Akhtar quipped.
The Sholay co-screenwriter elaborated on it by saying that he didn’t experience such incidents back then. Akhtar recalled that stars were “irregular and indiscipline” and that most of them would arrive late on the sets. However, there wasn’t enough money to enjoy such facilities.
In the same show, Javed Akhtar also spoke about how his children, filmmaker Zoya Akhtar and director-actor Farhan Akhtar believe that his writing is “outdated” and how they “dream in English”. Akhtar also revealed that he was asked to write the dog’s dialogues in Zoya’s 2016 film, Dil Dhadakne Do.
Javed Akhtar is married to veteran actress Shabana Azmi. He was recently featured in a documentary mini-series, Angry Young Men along with Salim Khan. It explored the lives of the famous screenwriter-duo. Directed by Namrata Rao, the series premiered on Amazon Prime Video.
