Farhan Akhtar is an actor-director known for wearing his heart on his sleeve. He speaks candidly, especially in interviews, which adds to his public appeal. Despite the constant spotlight on celebrities’ lives, Farhan has managed to navigate the ups and downs in his personal life with grace and respect.
Farhan Akhtar reflects on childhood experiences with divorced parents amidst his own divorce; says, “It’s never going to entirely go away”
Farhan Akhtar, the director of Dil Chahta Hai, was married to Adhuna Bhabani for sixteen years, beginning in 2000, even before his debut film was released. The couple, who have two children, Shakya and Akira, divorced in 2016. Farhan later married Shibani Dandekar in 2022. In an interview with Faye D’Souza, Farhan discussed the parallels between his life and that of his father, the famed writer Javed Akhtar and said, “I know what it felt like and there was a huge part of me that was like I cannot do this to my own kids.”
Farhan responded to a heartbreaking yet perceptive question about his feelings before ending his first marriage, given the type of childhood he had. “It was difficult. A certain aspect of it was, of course, that I had been through having divorced parents when I was a kid.” He explained that he and Adhuna chose to have an open and honest conversation with their children to reassure them that they were not to be blamed. “I felt that it came to a place that if Adhuna and myself spoke to them openly and honestly, and explained to them why we are taking this kind of step, that it doesn’t have anything to do with them. It’s not because of them, it’s not because of anything they did, they said, or because they are here.”
Farhan also emphasized the importance of letting the children know that their parents made this decision together. “This is something between two grown up people, who as friends decided that this is something that they want to do. That’s the best we could do,” said the actor, who added that this decision has left him with a constant voice at the back of his head. “It’s something that I am going to have to live with for the rest of my life. It’s never going to entirely go away… the thinking about ‘Did they deserve this?’ It’s going to keep coming up. That’s something I guess I’ll just have to live with. The fact that it had happened to me as a kid played a huge role in how I feel about it now.”
He also talked about Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani’s divorce. He admitted that their separation impacted on him as a child. “Back then, it wasn’t common for parents to be divorced. But because who my parents were, it was public knowledge. If someone wanted to hit you below the belt in the school during a fight, they would say, ‘But your father left your mother’. And it would hurt. So apart from the fact that you were sad it happened, it would make you angry that it could be used against you.”
On the work front, Farhan who appeared in the 2021 film Toofan, is returning to directing after a 14-year break. The filmmaker is currently working on Don 3, the third installment in his Don series, where Ranveer Singh will take over the role of Don, originally made famous by Amitabh Bachchan in the 1978 film and later reprised by Shah Rukh Khan.
Also Read : Farhan Akhtar announces new single ‘Reach For The Stars’; to drop on August 29
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