Screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar honoured with the Dostoevsky Star Award

Javed Akhtar (left) at the felicitation ceremony in Mumbai on June 6

As a teenager, Javed Akhtar would devour Urdu translation of Russian literature, particularly Fyodor Dostoevsky's works. Had someone told him then that he would be honoured with the Dostoevsky Star Award later in life, he wouldn't have believed it. Last week, the noted screenwriter, poet and lyricist was felicitated with the award by the Russian House for promoting cultural dialogue and preserving literary heritage.

For Akhtar, 80, it's a matter of pride to receive the Dostoevsky Star Award. "Dostoevsky is one of the most respected novelists and journalists. In our Khandala house, we have his portrait on the door of our study. I don't think any Indian writer has received the Dostoevsky Star Award before. One of my books, where my poems have been translated by Ramdas Akella in the Russian language, was released at the function," says the veteran writer.

Shabana Azmi

Akhtar - who has shaped Indian cinema with movies like Zanjeer (1973), Sholay (1975), Mashaal (1984), and Lakshya (2004), among others - notes that Indian and Russian literature have been inspired by each other over centuries. "The novel structure and short stories of Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, or Dostoevsky inspired our writers. Similarly, Indian writers inspired them as some of our classics, including the Bhagavad Gita, were translated in Russian. At an impressionable age, I was introduced to Russian literature because they were translated in Urdu and English. My thinking and dramatic structure got influenced by them."

The event, which took place on June 6 in Mumbai, was a bittersweet moment for Shabana Azmi, actor and Akhtar's wife. She says, "I wish his father Jan Nisar Akhtar, and my father Kaifi Azmi were here to see him receive it."