24 Facts About Farhan Akhtar

1. Farhan Akhtar was born on 9 January 1974 and is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, playback singer, producer, and television host who works in Hindi films.

2. Farhan Akhtar studied at Maneckji Cooper school in Mumbai and then pursued a law degree at HR College, in Mumbai.

3. On his mother's side, Farhan Akhtar is the nephew of the child actress Daisy Irani and the first cousin of choreographer Farah Khan and Sajid Khan.

4. Farhan Akhtar assisted Pankaj Parashar as a director in Himalay Putra before launching himself into direction and writing.

5. Farhan Akhtar made his writing and directorial debut with the critically acclaimed film Dil Chahta Hai, produced by Excel Entertainment, a production company he established along with Ritesh Sidhwani in 1999.

6. The theme of the film, as stated by Farhan Akhtar, was about "finding oneself".

7. Parul Gupta of The Times of India gave it a negative review and explained that "It's hard to reconcile to such triviality when it comes from Farhan Akhtar, considered the ultimate symbol of cool in Hindi filmdom.

8. In 2006, Farhan Akhtar directed, produced and wrote the screenplay of Don starring Shah Rukh Khan in the title role, a remake of 1978 film Don, starring Amitabh Bachchan.

9. Farhan Akhtar was supposed to make his acting debut with the project, but he had to be replaced by Abhay Deol as he was involved with Don.

10. Rahman's album Blue, Farhan Akhtar acted in, and produced his sister Zoya's directorial and written debut Luck By Chance, which had Hrithik Roshan and Konkona Sen Sharma in the lead roles.

11. Farhan Akhtar was cast in the film after being deemed as a "perfect choice" for it.

12. Farhan Akhtar acted in, and produced his next film Karthik Calling Karthik, a psychological thriller directed by Vijay Lalwani.

13. Farhan Akhtar played Karthik, an introvert character, starring alongside Deepika Padukone for the first time.

14. Farhan Akhtar produced and appeared as one of the three leads in his sister, Zoya Farhan Akhtar's coming-of-age film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara along with Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin.

15. Farhan Akhtar was credited as the scriptwriter for the film.

16. Farhan Akhtar was the first actor to be cast in the film, and described his role as a "fun character" and a "guy who for the longest time takes nothing seriously.

17. Farhan Akhtar essayed the role with such integrity that it set the standard for other actors considering to play titular protagonists in biopics.

18. Farhan Akhtar swept all awards that year for 'Best Actor' as did the film for 'Best Film'.

19. In 2014, Farhan Akhtar acted for the romantic comedy Shaadi Ke Side Effects alongside Vidya Balan, a film directed by Saket Chaudhary and produced by Pritish Nandy.

20. In 2016, Farhan Akhtar played the lead role of an Anti Terrorist Squad officer in Bejoy Nambiar's Wazir.

21. Farhan Akhtar reprised his role of Aditya Shroff, the lead singer of his band.

22. In 2017, Farhan Akhtar essayed the role of a Dawood Ibrahim-alike mafia don Maqsood in Daddy, co-starring Arjun Rampal.

23. Farhan Akhtar received training for boxing for his next release Toofan, a sports drama, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, which will premiere on 21 May 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.

24. Farhan Akhtar appeared as one of the nine judges in the beauty pageant Femina Miss India.