Zoya Akhtar

Zoya Akhtar was born to poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar and screenwriter Honey Irani. Zoya's stepmother is Shabana Azmi.[1] Her younger brother, Farhan Akhtar, is an actor and director. She attended Maneckji Cooper and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Xavier's College, both from Mumbai. Later, she joined the New York University Tisch School of the Arts to learn film production.

Her great-grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, a scholar of Islamic studies and theology, edited the first diwan of Mirza Ghalib on his request and later became a figure during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in his native Khairabad.[2]

She is great-granddaughter of renowned Urdu poet Muztar Khairabadi and granddaughter of poet Jan Nisar Akhtar.

Zoya grew up in an agnostic environment and along with her brother Farhan and father Javed Akhtar, she does not believe in any religion.[3][4]

Zoya started her career as co-director of a music video called Price of Bullets for a rock band called Pentagram. She has worked as a casting director for films including Dil Chahta Hai and Split Wide Open, and as an assistant director for her brother Farhan Akhtar's films Lakshya and Dil Chahta Hai. She then worked as an executive producer for her longtime partner Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., also produced by Excel Entertainment.[5]

Zoya (right) with Reema Kagti

Zoya made her directorial debut with Luck By Chance (2009), starring her brother Farhan Akhtar and Konkana Sen Sharma. It tells the story of a struggling actor who breaks into the industry. The film was well received by critics, despite not doing well at the box office.[6][7]

In 2011, she directed Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, a multistarrer with Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin.[8] It turned out to be a box office success and won her the Filmfare Award for Best Director.

In 2013, Akhtar teamed up with Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar for Bombay Talkies. It was made as a celebration of 100 years of Indian cinema.[9][10]. She then went on to direct Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), a film based on a dysfunctional Punjabi family starring Anil Kapoor as an egotistical industrialist, Shefali Shah as his bitter socialite wife, and Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh as their children. The film also featured Anushka Sharma and Farhan Akhtar as love interests for Singh and Chopra respectively.[11][12]

After Dil Dhadakne Do, Zoya Akhtar directed Gully Boy starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.[13], loosely based on the lives of Mumbai rapper Naezy.[14] Akhtar and Reema Kagti also worked on a story for a web series produced by Tiger Baby Films and Excel Entertainment for Amazon Prime called Made in Heaven, a story about two wedding planners.[15][16]

She has been invited by the Academy Awards to be a member of the Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.[17]

As of October 2019, she is directing a segment of Ghost Stories, an Anthology film, consisting of four short film segments. Other segments are directed by Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, and Karan Johar.[18] Ghost Stories is to premier on Netflix on 1 January 2020.[19]

She appeared on the Valentine's Day charity show of Kaun Banega Crorepati along with her brother Farhan Akhtar.[23] She also appeared in a very brief role as Rasa Devi's Rekha's Courtesan in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love.[24] She and Shah Rukh Khan had a 'fireside chat' with Jeff Bezos of Amazon in January 2020. [25][26][27]

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• Zoya Akhtar on IMDb