Farhan Akhtar
The Director The Actor and The Rock Star
He started his career in Bollywood as the director of the 2001 super hit film, Dil Chahta Hai starring Amir Khan. The film was very popular with the student crowd, many rating it as one of the best films ever made. His next film was Lakshya starring Hrithik Roshan. The film about a young graduate struggling to find his goal in life was only an average earner at the box office but won Akthar critical acclaim and established him as an A list Bollywood director. In 2006 he directed the remake of Amitabh Bachchan's 1978 cult film Don. The remake had Shahrukh Khan in the title role and was a huge success at the box office.
Rock On Made Farhan Akhtar India's Biggest Rock Star
In 2008 came the film Rock On. Although this time Farhan Akhtar wasn’t sitting on the director's chair, he had a lot to do with its success. In Rock On we saw Farhan Akhtar the actor and Farhan Akhtar the singer. The question in everyone’s mind before the release of the film was: 'will he be a better actor than director or will his skills as a singer outshine both his acting and directing skills'?
As far as his acting skills goes, Akhtar’s performance as Aditya Shroff, a lead singer of a Rock Band that ends up giving up on his dreams to become a successful but distraught Business Executive, is one of the most complex characters we have seen in a Bollywood film this year. Akhtar plays the character with complete conviction, his emotional depth and character portrayal is nothing but praiseworthy. As Aditya he doesn't falter at all, his dialogue delivery, his timing and his body language all add to developing a believable character.
However Farhan Akhtar the star only comes out when he is singing. Rock On’s soundtrack can be considered to be Akhtar’s personal Rock Album. He sang five songs for the album and to no one's surprise - he rocks! With his performance in the songs Socha Hai, Rock On, Tum Ho Ho and Sinbad the Sailor he first meets, then surpasses and then finally blows the expectations of the audience out of the window.
Farhan Akhtar Says No to A.R. Rahman
A.R. Rahman was so impressed with Farhan Akhtar's style of singing, he begged him to be the playback singer for the song Fiqrana, in the film Blue. Rahman composed the song especially for Farhan Akhtar but Akhtar declined to do the song. Any other singer would have jumped at the chance of working with the Oscar winning composer, but it seems Farhan Akhtar only wants to sing for characters he portrays on screen.
In the near future we will see Farhan Akhtar the actor in Gulel and Farhan Akhtar the director in Don 2. However looks like we will have to wait a while for the second innings of Farhan Akhtar the Rock Star.
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