Javed Akhtar to be felicitated with Padmapani Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ajanta-Ellora Film Festival

Veteran lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar will be felicitated with the Padmapani Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ajanta-Ellora Film Festival. Akhtar, the co-writer of Hindi cinema classics such as “Zanjeer”, “Deewaar”, “Sholay”, “Don”, “Kaala Patthar” and “Mr India”, will be honoured for his contribution to the Indian film industry on the opening day of the festival’s ninth edition, a press release said. The award ceremony will take place at Rukmini Auditorium in MGM University campus of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on January 3, 2024. Akhtar recently said lyrics today don’t work the way they did earlier because they are not rooted in a film’s story and its emotions. The 78-year-old has written some immortal lyrics for songs such as “Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum” for “Silsila” (1981), “Ek Ladki Ko Dekha” for “1942: A Love Story” (1994), and “Jashn-e-Bahara” for “Jodhaa Akbar” (2008) to name a few. “It is not that writers can’t write good songs, it’s that they are not getting an opportunity to write good songs. There are a number of reasons why songs have become forgettable. One, the tempo and beat has become very high. Two, most songs are in the background today, there is no lip-sync anymore,” Akhtar told PTI. In the recently released book called Talking Life: Javed Akthar in Conversation with Nasreen Munni Kabir, veteran lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar finally addressed the allegations that two of his classics, Zanjeer and Sholay, both starring Amitabh Bachchan, were inspired by western films. The latter, directed by Ramesh Sippy, according to numerous reports, was inspired by the western classic Once Upon A Time In The West. Akhtar, in the book, has been quoted saying, “As I have said, we ( Salim and Javed ) were influenced by Sergio Leone. But  Sholay  was not based on his epic film. Critics also said  Zanjeer  was based on Dirty Harry.” He argued Dirty Harry was released in December 1971 and Zanjeer in May 1973, so they couldn’t have ripped off the screenplay in those days. With added inputs from agencies