Javed Akhtar with actress-wife Shabana Azmi

Q: You’ve reached a pinnacle as a lyricist. Don’t you think you need to move upward?

If I started believing I’ve written it all, it would be very pompous of me. Lyricists like Shailendra and Sahir who were my role models have achieved that pinnacle. They’re mindblowing. So have poets whom no one remembers today, like S. H. Bihari, Bharat Vyas, Pradeep, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan?. But you’re right. I’ve reached a plateau as a lyricist. After a long time I’ve gone back to my first love ? screenwriting ? without reducing the number of lyrics I write. As it is, I don’t write too many lyrics. I intend to write at least one screenplay every year. I’m in the process of writing one script. After I complete it I’ll give it to any producer who wants it. I wrote one screenplay recently, that was Lakshya, for my son Farhan. Woh to ghar ki baat hai.

Q: Will this lead to direction?

Right now there’re many interesting developments in my career. But direction would require me to give up all my other activities.

Q: Perhaps your wife Shabana also strives to reach that centre through her performances.

I loved her performance in 15 Park Avenue. I wept in that film, as I did in Khandhar. I know the girls that Shabana and Konkona Sensharma played in Khandhar and 15 Park Avenue. I connect with them. I know their hopeless lives. I’ve celebrated them in the lines, Dekhiye to lagta hai zindagi ki raahon mein ek bheed chalti hai/Sochiye to lagta hai bheed mein hain sab tanha.

Q: You’ve made poetry accessible to the common man.

Isn’t that what poetry is supposed to do? If you can’t communicate your lines to the common man then why are you making your art public? Some artistes say they don’t care if their art is not understood. There should be some difference between your diary and shaayari.

Q: What is your opinion on a Hindu fundamentalist organisation issuing a threat against M.F. Husain?

You know, this is nothing but unsavoury competition between fundamentalists from different communities. Instead of learning desirable things from one another, the bigots choose to indulge in a spirit of competitiveness. ‘Tum itne reactionary ho? Main isse bhi zyaada reactionary hoon.’ This is alarming. We the civil sections of society are too tolerant of these reactionary elements. There’s no reason to be scared of them. When I stand up and speak in Muslim gatherings against fundamentalist elements the audience claps. Likewise in Hindu gatherings. Maybe they can’t say it aloud. But when somebody bells the cat, they approve.

We haven’t been able to fight communalism because we choose to target such elements in one particular community. Let’s not take sides. It doesn’t matter whether the colour of communalism is orange, green or blue?we need to get colour-blind to oppose reactionary elements.

Please believe me, our junta needs apolitical, right-thinking responsible citizens who stand up against any kind of fundamentalism. One fatal mistake of secularists is their rather condescending attitude towards minority reactionary attitudes. The moment we differentiate between minority and majority communalism, we’re guilty of reactionary attitude.

Those who want to cut off Husain’s hands should be condemned. But what about the minister who offers Rs 51 crore to anyone who kills the Danish cartoonist? You cannot speak up for one and criticise the other.

Q: What about the bullying that Aamir Khan faces?

It’s totally stupid. I was surprised when Aamir said on TV that he knows nothing about the construction of the Narmada dam. He says he’s speaking up for those who’d be rendered homeless. What’s the meaning of protesting about that? Are you saying the homeless shouldn’t be rehabilitated? The whole thing is totally bizarre. The trouble is, in their keenness to prove their existence, people don’t listen.

Q: What do you think of Farhan Akhtar remaking Don?

Remakes aren’t a new phenomenon. We tend to forget Mehboob Khan’s Mother India was a remake. And Cape Fear was also remade by Martin Scorsese. The original featuring Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck film was set in a decent middleclass family. The remake was set in a truly complicated family. Mughal-e-Azam and Anarkali took the Salim-Anarkali romance into different treatments. And you know, Shakespeare’s plays weren’t based on original ideas. But he took those stories to a new level. Bimal Roy gave a new interpretation to P.C. Barua’s Devdas. But I fail to understand where there is the room for any improvisation in Sholay (the Ramesh Sippy film that Ram Gopal Varma plans to remake). If you cannot do anything new or different to the original then what’s the point of it? As for Don, it was an interesting script but suffered because it was made on a shoe-string budget. The producer Nariman Irani somehow managed to complete the film. Don can definitely be remade on a much larger scale.

Q: So would you want to see your son’s Don?

Of course. I’ve written three of the songs. He has worked on the script. But I’ve left him alone. Salim and I did what we had to with Don. Now let’s see what Farhan does.