Javed Akhtar, who recently attended an event to honour director Mani Ratnam for his achievement in cinema, said that for decades, the Hindi film industry was “convinced of our superiority” but all of that changed when Mani Ratnam started making movies and made them feel like “illiterate children”.
Speaking at an event for News 18, Javed said, “Bombay film industry people have been very complacent and sure of ourselves. We used to be completely convinced of our superiority. And then, a director came from Tamil Nadu, he slapped us hard on our face with the kind of work we had never seen.” The veteran writer called the director’s work “unprecedented” and said, “We were very sure of our technical superiority. He made us feel like illiterate children.”
Javed Akhtar said that in the film industry, success comes to many but only those who have done some “exceptional work” can sustain that success. “It wont be politically right but I can give you names of ten directors who have made number of superhits but nobody remembers them. In the film industry, it is not only success that sustains you, success with some exceptional work, and that is by Mani Ratnam,” he said.
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Mani Ratnam returned the compliments and requested Javed to come back to screenplay writing. Javed, along with Salim Khan, wrote some of the most popular Hindi films in the 1970s including Sholay, Deewar, among others.
He said, “Javed saab, I think we need you back writing screenplay. It will help us a lot. Especially in these times, when we are talking of just numbers, I think we need Javed saab.”
When asked when he would be willing to make his next film, Mani Ratnam joked that he will do so when Javed Akhtar writes a screenplay for him. Mani is now looking forward to his next film with Kamal Haasan.
Javed had recently criticised Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal for its misogynistic content. At the 9th Ajanta-Ellora International Film Festival, he said, “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 the film is a super hit, that’s dangerous.”
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Javed Akhtar says Hindi film industry was ‘convinced of its superiority’, Mani Ratnam made them feel like ‘illiterate children’: ‘He slapped us hard’ – The Indian Express
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