Shabana Azmi shares Javed Akhtar’s picture as he poses with his Richard Dawkins Award

Shabana Azmi has posted a picture of her husband, lyricist Javed Akhtar with his Richard Dawkins Award. Javed is the first Indian to be presented the prestigious award.

Almost four months after being named as the recipient of the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award, senior lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar was snapped with the trophy on Monday. Akhtar’s wife and actor Shabana Azmi took to Twitter to share the first picture of the celebrated poet with his award trophy.

Shabana Azmi has posted a happy picture of Javed Akhtar with his award.

“@Javedakhtarjadu with his prized #Richard Dawkins 2020 Award,” Azmi tweeted along with his picture. Akhtar and Richard Dawkins on Saturday had interacted with each other during a virtual conversation on the award.

The renowned personality is conferred with the award for his “critical thinking, holding religious dogma upto scrutiny, advancing human progress and humanist values.” Earlier, reacting to his win, Javed had told NDTV that he was not expecting the award and was surprised that the organisers were even listening to what he was speaking about the Indian political climate. “I wasn’t sure that these people would know what I am saying, what I am writing, what I am speaking from different podiums. But thank you very much. Mr Richard Dawkins’ letter was a very very pleasant surprise,” he had said.

Later Shabana had also reacted to rumours that Javed had not won the award and was lying about it. Reacting to a WhatsApp screenshot shared on Twitter, Shabana wrote, “This is patently untrue! We have an email from Richard Dawkins on 5th June offering the award and also from Robyn Blumner who heads the Centre for Inquiry, USA. I feel sad for these pathetic trolls who do not care that they will stand exposed in seconds for such a preposterous claim.” In the apparent WhatsApp conversation, one person claimed that Akhtar mistook his nomination as an actual victory and told his friends in the media.

The veteran lyricist and screenwriter also has five National Awards for Best Lyricist to his name and even the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Follow @htshowbiz on Twitter