At the recent Anant Rang Mental Health Cultural Festival, celebrated lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar broke his silence on a deeply personal chapter of his life — his struggle with alcohol. In a rare and refreshingly candid moment, the veteran writer didn’t shy away from admitting the extent of his drinking or the inner dialogue that finally pushed him toward sobriety.
“I was not an alcoholic,” Akhtar began. “Alcoholic is someone who couldn’t function if a certain percentage of alcohol is not in his bloodstream. I don’t think that was the case with me. But I was a very, very heavy drinker.”
He went on to share a detail that many may find surprising: “Ultimately, I developed an allergy to whiskey. And I don’t think whiskey is meant for Indians. For our weather conditions, I don’t think whiskey is good for us. I was on rum for 11 long years, and I would polish one bottle every day. I was drinking. I had no excuse for it. I just drank. I wasn’t going through any grieving or loss or pain. I used to thoroughly enjoy drinking.”
The turning point came in his forties, when a quiet moment of reflection brought a startling truth into focus. “I was in my forties, and I thought to myself — with some common sense — that if I kept drinking the way I am drinking, I would die in my early fifties. And I came to the realization that if I keep drinking, I’ll enjoy it for another decade, and then I will die. But if I don’t drink, I might live longer.”
And then, perhaps the most powerful line of the night: “I had no interest in dying. I genuinely don’t want to die — ever — if that is even possible.”
That raw honesty resonated with the audience, not because it came from a famous figure, but because it came from a place so fundamentally human — the will to live.
Javed Akhtar has been sober since July 31, 1991, a date he considers one of the best decisions of his life. His openness adds a new dimension to the conversations around addiction, breaking stigma and reminding others that transformation is possible — not through dramatic intervention, but through honest introspection and quiet courage.
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