Javed Akhtar reveals why his first marriage with Honey Irani failed: 'When I used to drink...'

The veteran lyricist and screen writer known for penning blockbusters like Sholay, Zanjeer, Haathi Mere Saathi and many others, opened up about his failed marriage with Honey Irani, who were married for 11 years before parting ways in 1985. The legendary personality blamed alcoholism for that.

“I am living in uniform civil code. I was married to a lady, after 11 years of marriage we got divorced. According to Muslim personal law, I was only responsible to give her alimony for four months but I didn’t think that. She was my responsibility. It is also her choice whether she wants my support or not, but whenever she wanted and whenever she will, or she may not as she is very self respecting person, but I’m available for help. I walked out of the house with some books and some clothes. That’s all. And now we are best of friends because of this relationship and this understanding,” said Akhtar while talking to Mojo Story.

“I started drinking at the age of 20-21 and left when I was 42 years old. I could afford a bottle and used to drink almost a bottle every night. It’s very common for Urdu poetics to become big drunkards because they believe that if they are poets and artistes, they should be carefree and you should drink. I think I had those wrong values,” added Akhtar.

He revealed that after drinking he became someone else and added, “On the other side, all the tehzeeb that I learned in Lucknow didn’t allow me to use foul language, so all the bitterness was compressed inside me. But when I used to drink all those barriers will break and I would become a very nasty man and would use foul language. I used to become another person. It was unhealthy, irrational and causing problem to many people. It impacted my marriage with Honey. If I was a sober and responsible person, the story would have been different.”