Javed Akhtar on Sandeep Vanga’s criticism: ‘Flattered he couldn’t find anything’

Javed Akhtar, in a recent interview, responded to Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s criticism. The lyricist had earlier criticised the trend of people likinb films like ‘Animal’.

Responsing to it, Vanga had pointed a finger at ‘Mirzapur’, a show that was produced by his son, Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment.

Talking to Mojo Story, Javed Akhtar 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 nor written by Farhan.

His company has produced it. Nowadays, these big companies like Excel are producing a lot of things. So one of them is this. He mentioned that. It flattered me to no end. 53 years ke career mein tum kuchh bhi nahi nikaal paye (You couldn’t find anything problematic in 53 years of my career)? What a shame.”

The veteran lyricist also added, “I was not criticising the filmmaker at all. I think in a democratic society, he has the right to make one Animal, and many Animals. I was concerned about the audience, not about the filmmaker. He has the right to make any film.”

At an event earlier, Javed Akhtar had 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.” This was the starting point of the controversy.