ACTOR
Farhan Akhtar
23 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (23)
- #001
Farhan Akhtar is exactly one day older than his close friend, actor Hrithik Roshan.
- #002
In an interview with Simone Singh on the talk show "The Lounge" (on the Indian channel CNBC-TV18), Akhtar said that after dropping out of university he spent about two years at home doing nothing productive. During those two years he watched roughly two films a day. Akhtar said this was the period of his life when he connected with Karan Shergill, the protagonist of Lakshya (2004). Lakshya, which Akhtar directed, begins with Karan as a young, unemployed slacker who stays at home, sleeps late and has no ambition or purpose in life.
- #003
Farhan Akhtar enjoys writing poetry in English and Urdu.
- #004
For the film Rock On (2008), Farhan did something very unusual in Bollywood by singing all of its songs himself, which presented him as a rock star. Before this film few actors had done anything similar, and only for a single song and very experimentally, but Farhan corrected an age-old flaw that had become the norm in Indian films by using his own voice, namely that during songs the actor's voice on screen changes because the playback singer's voice is completely different.
- #005
Farhan Akhtar directed the music video for the 1998 hit song "Breathless" from Shankar Mahadevan's debut album, which made Mahadevan famous. Farhan Akhtar and Shankar Mahadevan later continued to collaborate on every film Farhan directed, with Shankar composing the music for his films as part of the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa).
- #006
Farhan Akhtar is the son of the famous Indian lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar and the screenwriter and story writer Honey Irani. He is the brother of Zoya Akhtar, the cousin of Kabir Akhtar and the grandson of Jan Nissar Akhtar.
- #007
Farhan was ready with a strong script for a film in the vein of a Hollywood war film with a completed Hollywood cast. The film was titled Sid and most of the crew and cast were to be from the West. The script was ready and was supposedly a strong action adventure. The story is war-based, similar to the Hollywood film 300. Sid was to be directed by Abhishek Kapoor, who is Farhan's best director these days and also directed his first film, Rock On!. The story belongs to Ashok Kumar Banker, the author of the Ramayana; he had previously written Gods of War. Farhan insists that the film is neither based on Gods of War nor a sequel to Lakshya, as many in the industry perceive it to be. It has a completely different story and is an entirely different film.
- #008
Farhan Akhtar's former wife is named Riya Jain.
- #009
Farhan Akhtar was offered the role in Dum Maaro Dum that went to Rana Daggubati, but he turned it down.
- #010
Farhan Akhtar is the nephew of actor-director Kamran Khan, the father of Farah and Sajid Khan.
- #011
Farhan Akhtar's cousin is the Hollywood producer, writer and director Kabir Akhtar. Kabir is the son of the poet Salman Akhtar. Kabir also has a sister named Nishat, who appeared on the talk show Camp Summit in Canada. Nishat Akhtar is a creative director at Instrument and an adjunct professor of design at Portland State University.
- #012
Farhan Akhtar is the cousin of Bollywood actor-director-choreographer Farah Khan and Sajid Khan. He is the brother-in-law of director Shirish Kunder.
- #013
Farhan Akhtar is the step-grandson of Shaukat Azmi and Kaifi Azmi.
- #014
Farhan Akhtar is the nephew of screenwriter K. K. Shukla, who is married to Farhan's aunt Daisy Irani.
- #015
Farhan Akhtar's cousin Kabir Shukla (Daisy Irani's son) works for Zee Cinema. He is the creative director of the promos that are broadcast.
- #016
Farhan Akhtar is the cousin of producer Ritu Shukla (Daisy Irani's daughter).
- #017
Farhan Akhtar is the nephew of the child actors Sarosh Irani and Bunny.
- #018
Farhan Akhtar is the grandson of producer Mrs. P. N. Irani (Perin Noshir Irani), who produced the film Bachpan. His grandfather's name was Noshir Irani.
- #019
Farhan Akhtar is the nephew of the actress Daisy Irani. He should not be confused with the Singaporean TV producer and actress of the same name, Daisy Irani (Subaiah). Daisy Irani is the daughter of the Gujarati actress Padmarani and the theatre director Namdar Irani. Namdar was the uncle of the actress Aruna Irani.
- #020
Farhan Akhtar is the nephew of the actress Mona Rajput, who is married to Farhan's uncle, the actor Sarosh Irani.
- #021
In 2004, Ritu Parno Ghosh planned to make a film with Amitabh Bachchan and Shabana Azmi and to introduce Farhan Akhtar as an actor. It was about a father who overshadows his loser son. The film was shelved for unknown reasons.
- #022
Aparna Sen's shelved film "Gulel" starred Ajay Devgan, Konkana Sen Sharma (who replaced Kareena Kapoor), Saif Ali Khan, Sushmita Sen (who replaced Bipasha Basu) and Urmila in a special appearance. This was in 2008. In 2009, a story circulated that Ranbir Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar had replaced Ajay and Saif.
- #023
Farhan Akhtar is dating Shibani Dandekar, a popular TV host and singer.
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