Interview with Farhan Akhtar: His Art is Rooted in Connection and Lasting Stories
ithout boundaries. He doesn’t put his work into separate boxes. Whether it’s acting, directing, writing, or singing, for him, it’s all about telling a story.
When asked how connecting with the audience differs in live music compared to filmmaking, he says, “With live music, there is just an immediate kind of energy exchange that happens between the audience and the performer. With films, you have to wait to see how people are going to feel on a larger level.”
As the director behind films like Lakshya, Don – The Chase Begins Again, and Dil Chahta Hai, which changed the landscape of the early 2000s Indian cinema, or the actor behind the fun-loving poet, Imran, in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara—which is a bench-marker of films on friendship—to the producer of Superboys of Malegaon, considered one of the best films of 2025, Farhan says choosing projects is instinctive.
“It’s like when someone starts talking to you. Within the first 15 or 20 seconds, you know whether you’re interested or not. It’s the same with a story. Whether I read it or someone narrates it, I usually know in the first minute if it speaks to me,” he says.
Farhan doesn’t worry about whether a film is commercial or artistic. “If something makes me curious, if I think I’ll learn from it or simply enjoy it, then that’s enough. There has to be something that tells me to give it more time.” At the end of the day, what matters most is his own excitement. “I just ask myself if I’ll be happy to wake up and do this every day. If the work has something real in it, people will find it,” the actor reasons.
Right now, Farhan is a busy man. His film 120 Bahadur is coming soon, and Don 3 is next on his directing slate. Whether he’s performing or filming, he invites you in. There’s warmth, humor, and sincerity in how he does it. With every song, scene, or monologue, he proves again and again that creativity is not about labels. It is about expression. And in everything he does, he makes you feel like you are experiencing it with him, right there in the moment. Aabshaaro is streaming on all major platforms.