On this day, 62 years ago, veteran screenwriter, lyricist, and poet Javed Akhtar first stepped foot into Mumbai. He left home in Gwalior, Uttar Pradesh, and took a train to Mumbai, the proverbial city of dreams, getting down at the Mumbai Central station on October 4, 1964. More than six decades later, his wife and veteran actor Shabana Azmi celebrated the occasion with an Instagram post on Sunday.

Shabana Azmi recalls Javed Akhtar’s early Mumbai days

“4th Oct 1964. A young lad arrived at Bombay Central Station with 27 naye paise in his pocket but with big dreams in his eyes,” wrote Shabana in the Instagram caption, along with the picture of a young Javed Akhtar. “Life gave him several hard knocks. He slept on the footpaths, at the railway stations, and in the compound of many a studio. A day came when he had nothing to eat for 3 days and the only clothes he had were the shreds on his body,” she added.

Recalling how Javed refused to give up despite those hardships, Shabana continued, “On the edge of despair, when he could have given up, he said to himself, ‘Main yunhi marne ke liye nahin paida nahin hua tha. Yeh din badlenge’ (I wasn’t born to die like just like that. These days will change), as they did. 4th October, 1964: a 19-year-old, almost penniless. 4th October, 2026, decades later: a life that has given India some of its most memorable words. This is the story of Javed Akhtar.”

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Shabana Azmi ended the post by turning Javed Akhtar’s journey into a message of hope for others: “Some journeys begin with almost nothing. Except a dream. If he can do it, so can you. Never give up.”

In the comments section of the video, celebrities including Javed Akhtar’s daughter and filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, actors Hrithik Roshan, Dia Mirza, Divya Dutta, and Amruta Subhash, among others, shared red heart emojis. “The boy continues to dream and build (fire emoji),” commented music composer Ankur Tewari.

Javed Akhtar on his early days of struggle

In the 2024 Amazon Prime Video India docuseries Angry Young Men, Javed Akhtar also looked back at his early days of struggle in Mumbai. “I decided that after my graduation, I’d go to Mumbai and work as an assistant director, hopefully with either Guru Dutt or Raj Kapoor. I was sure that after a couple of years of doing this, I’d definitely become a director,” he recalled.

After living with his father and legendary poet Jan Nisar Akhtar, Javed then moved out and slept wherever he found a place, from friends’ homes to railways stations, parks, studio compounds, corridors, and benches. “Some days, I’d walk all the way from Dadar to Bandra, because I didn’t have money for bus fare. Some days, it would strike me that I hadn’t eaten for two days. I would always think to myself that if one day, a biography were to be written about me, this would make for an incredible moment,” he added.

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After Javed Akhtar swore to himself that he’d see better days, better days did follow. Eventually, he joined forces with Salim Khan to become arguably India’s most formidable writer duo. Salim-Javed wrote seminal films like Hathi Mere Sathi (1971), Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Seeta Aur Geeta (1973), Zanjeer (1973), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Don (1978), Trishul (1978), Shaan (1980), and Shakti (1982), among others.

However, Javed confessed that the days of hunger left such an indelible impact on his psyche that even after having all the luxuries in the world today, he’s unable to believe it’s true at times. “I stay in five-star hotels, in huge suites with large double beds. And I look back on how I came to Mumbai, in a third-class compartment that didn’t even have any room to sit. I remember how I was deprived of sleep, and how tired I was. All I needed was a fraction of the room I had now,” he said.

The veteran poet also admitted that he still experiences imposter syndrome and sometimes feels as though he is having an out-of-body experience while enjoying the luxuries he has earned after a lifetime of hard work. “They bring out so much food, and I always wonder where this food was on the days I had nothing to eat. To this day, I feel like I haven’t deserved this food. I can’t get over that,” he added, teary-eyed, in the docuseries.