‘Bring Madam’s shoes’: Javed Akhtar recalls how assistant directors were treated when he first entered the film industry

Javed akhtar recalls early days in career

• Javed Akhtar recalls assistant directors once did menial tasks in Bollywood
• He stresses secularism should be a natural way of life, not taught artificially
• Akhtar shares childhood story of his grandmother opposing religious imposition

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Veteran lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar offered candid reflections on the early treatment of assistant directors in Bollywood during his talk at the 19th Jaipur Literature Festival on Thursday, revealing how menial and disrespected the role once was compared with today’s more professional environment.

Addressing a crowded session titled Javed Akhtar: Points of View, the 80-year-old filmmaker recalled his days as an assistant director, saying the position was once far from prestigious. “Today, things in the film industry are much more streamlined than ever,” he said, according to media reports. Back then, Akhtar remembered, young assistant directors were routinely asked to fetch an actor’s coat, locate a hero’s jacket, he said, “What was our job? Bring Madam’s shoes quickly. Where is the hero’s coat? Where is the jacket? We used to do all this. We used to say, ‘I am an assistant director.’ Today’s assistants, however, are on first-name terms with the stars. I get scared when I see them. The assistant director is calling the hero by his name, we could never have imagined that.”

The discussion, however, wasn’t limited to film-industry hierarchy. Akhtar also spoke about secularism, stressing that it cannot be learned through quick lessons but must grow naturally as part of one’s upbringing. "Secularism should be a way of life because everyone around you is living like this, and then it comes to you automatically. If one day you are given a lecture and you remember points A, B and C after listening to it, that is fake, that is artificial. It can hardly last. But if it is your way of life -- the way you have seen your elders, the people you respect and admire, living -- then it comes within you."

In personal reflections shared with the audience, Javed Akhtar spoke about his childhood in a household of agnostics and atheists and recounted an anecdote involving his grandmother, who refused to allow anyone to impose religion on him even as a child.

Javed also talked about his childhood, how he, an atheist, was raised in a household of agnostics and atheists. He shared a personal anecdote about his grandmother, who didn't get an education but possessed sensibility. In his childhood, his grandfather tried to persuade him to memorise religious verses by offering 50 paise. However, his grandmother intervened, saying that no one had the right to impose religion on another.

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"That was the end of my religious education. Yes, that time, I was not very happy with her because I lost the opportunity to earn 50 paise. But in retrospect, I think of her as a woman who could not even write her name, but she had this sensibility. I wish our leaders had one-tenth of this sensibility," he added.