Javed Akhtar was responsible for bringing the wave of ‘angry young men’ into Indian cinema in the ‘70s. The docu-series based on his and Salim Khan’s partnership also derived its title from the tag given to legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan.
In a recent interview with The Indian Express, Javed Akhtar discussed the title of Angry Young Man given to Amitabh Bachchan for the kinds of movies he did back in the day. The screenwriter and lyricist said those characters shall never come back as the parameter of anger in films changed drastically.
Javed Akhtar to write a film for Ranbir Kapoor
He said in the interview, “Then they forgot about the hurt, and there was only anger, which was crude. And that is how the angry young man went out of the scene.” He also added that the current generation of cinema doesn’t have great stars as there’s a scarcity of detailed characters.
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When Javed was asked, “So you're saying Ranbir Kapoor will never be a star like Amitabh (Bachchan) because he's done a film like Animal?” He replied, “No, no. I may write a film for him.”
Javed Akhtar vs Sandeep Reddy Vanga over Animal
This statement of Javed Akhtar comes months after he raised objection over Animal, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga. At an event, he presented his thoughts without naming the film. He said, “I believe it’s a testing time for the young filmmakers today as to what kind of characters they want to create that the society will applaud. For instance, if there’s a film in which a man asks a woman to lick his shoe or if a man says it’s okay to slap a woman, and if the film is a super duper hit, then that’s very dangerous.”
Sandeep reacted to the statement saying, “Why didn't he tell the same thing to Farhan Akhtar when he was producing Mirzapur. Duniya bhar ke gaali Mirzapur ek show mai hai and I haven't watched the whole show. When the show was translated to Telugu, if you watch that, then you will feel like puking. Why is he not checking his son's work?”
Javed replied to Sandeep at an event and said, “When he responded to me, I was honoured. In 53 years of my career, he could not find one film, one script, one scene, one dialogue, one song. So he had to go to my son's office and find a TV serial, which is neither acted, directed or written by Farhan.”
The argument between Javed Akhtar and Sandeep Reddy Vanga settled after the former clarified that he never criticised the filmmaker. He added that being a democratic society, every person has the right to tell stories of all kinds.