# Shabana Azmi recalls Javed Akhtar arriving in Bombay with just 27 paise

Published 2026-10-04T11:21:35Z

> Shabana Azmi marked the day Javed Akhtar reached Bombay in 1964 with 27 paise in his pocket, recalling the nights on footpaths and hungry days before he became one of India's best known writers.

Shabana Azmi has marked a special date for her husband Javed Akhtar with an Instagram post that looks back at his hardest years. On October 4, 1964, a 19-year-old Akhtar got off a train at Bombay Central station with only 27 naye paise and a head full of dreams. Reports say the date is also his birthday, and that he turned 81 this year.

Shared with a photograph of a young Akhtar, the post traces the rough road that followed. With no home of his own, he slept on footpaths, at railway stations and inside studio compounds. At one low point he went three days without a meal, and the worn clothes on his back were all he owned.

Azmi wrote that what kept him going was a promise he made to himself when quitting seemed close. He told himself he had not been born to die like that, and that these days would change: "Yeh din badlenge." She set the penniless teenager of 1964 against the man of 2026, whose words are now among the most memorable in Indian cinema. She ended with a message for anyone starting out with nothing but a dream: if he can do it, so can you, so never give up.

The post reportedly drew red heart emojis from Zoya Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Dia Mirza, Divya Dutta and Amruta Subhash, among others.

Akhtar has talked about this phase himself. In the 2024 docuseries Angry Young Men, he reportedly said he had planned to work as an assistant to Guru Dutt or Raj Kapoor. He also spoke about walking from Dadar to Bandra when he could not pay the bus fare, and about days when he realised he had not eaten for two days. According to reports, he said the hunger never fully left him, and that even in big hotel suites he sometimes feels he has not earned the food in front of him.

Better days did come. He teamed up with Salim Khan to form the writing pair Salim-Javed, the team behind classics such as Zanjeer, Deewaar, Sholay, Don and Trishul.

## Related people
- [Javed Akhtar](https://clapnumber.com/celebrities/javed-akhtar)
- [Shabana Azmi](https://clapnumber.com/celebrities/shabana-azmi)

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Source: https://clapnumber.com/news/shabana-azmi-recalls-javed-akhtar-arriving-in-bombay-with-just-27-paise
Retrieved: 2026-10-04