Lyricist Javed Akhtar on Friday tweeted a strong rejoinder to filmmakers of the upcoming biopic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who credited him as one of the movie’s seven lyricists, declaring that he had not written any songs for the film.
The film’s trailer was released online on Thursday. In the final title card, Javed Akhtar was one of the seven lyricists. Prasoon Joshi, Sameer, Abhendra Kumar Upadhyay, Sardaraa, Parry G and Lavraj were the other six. Actor Vivek Oberoi is also credited for his contributions to the film’s screenplay and dialogue, while director Omung Kumar is credited as ‘Omung Kumar B’.
“Am shocked to find my name on the poster of this film. Have not written any songs for it!” Akhtar wrote in a tweet on Friday.
“PM Narendra Modi the film will traverse the journey of Narendra Damodardas Modi from his humble beginnings to his years as Gujarat Chief Minister onto his landmark win at the 2014 election and finally being nominated as the Prime Minister of India,” director Kumar said in a statement. Kumar has previously helmed biopics such as Mary Kom and Sarbjit.
{{/usCountry}}“PM Narendra Modi the film will traverse the journey of Narendra Damodardas Modi from his humble beginnings to his years as Gujarat Chief Minister onto his landmark win at the 2014 election and finally being nominated as the Prime Minister of India,” director Kumar said in a statement. Kumar has previously helmed biopics such as Mary Kom and Sarbjit.
{{/usCountry}}A former Rajya Sabha member, Akhtar frequently speaks his mind on issues. Like when some leaders demanded that the Election Commission change the poll schedule for the Lok Sabha elections because it coincided with Ramzan, Akhtar had spoken out against the demand.
When 40 CRPF soldiers were killed in the Pulwama terror attack last month, Javed Akhtar and wife actor Shabana Azmi had promptly called off their visit to Pakistan to attend her father Kaifi Azmi’s 100th birth anniversary celebrations in Karachi.
Akhtar has also warned that the room for creativity or freedom of expression in India was shrinking, a remark that was widely seen to criticise elements close to the ruling parties.
In an interview to news agency IANS last month, Javed Akhtar said: “It is very unfortunate but true that as a society we are becoming more regressive. The elbow room for creativity, literature, cinema or for any kind of point of view is shrinking and that is not advisable at all. I think we should be careful about it.”
The biopic’s trailer has been viewed over 10 million times already, in less than 24 hours of release. PM Narendra Modi is scheduled for release on April 5. The film also stars Boman Irani, Manoj Joshi, Prashant Narayanan, Zarina Wahab, Barkha Sengupta and Anjan Shrivastav.
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