Javed Akhtar has built a career on questioning the stories people are handed. In an interview with Express Hindi‘s Saurabh Dwivedi, the veteran lyricist and screenwriter turned that same instinct toward faith, religion and the beliefs most people never stop to examine.
A poet, lyricist and screenwriter with more than five decades in Indian cinema, Akhtar has never been shy about separating tradition from scrutiny. This latest exchange shows the same lens turned inward.
The 99% he cannot ignore
Akhtar’s central observation is simple and sharp: 99 percent of people die in the religion they were born into. To him, that statistic raises a bigger question—how often is faith actually a conscious choice, and how often is it simply an inheritance from childhood?
He acknowledged that religion can offer real comfort in difficult moments. But he drew a line between that emotional relief and proof. Feeling reassured, he argued, does not make a belief true.
Elon Musk as a thought experiment
To explain why comfort can be misleading, Akhtar offered a hypothetical. If someone believed from the heart that Elon Musk was their brother, and that billions of dollars were on the way next month, that belief could keep them happy indefinitely—even with no reason to expect the money. He asked how reassuring that thought would be, before pointing out that reassurance alone is not evidence.
He added, “We trust the idea, logic and reason.” The quote captures his larger argument: judge the idea, not the person presenting it.
Separating people from ideas
Akhtar also made a distinction between trusting a person and trusting an idea. A person may change their view tomorrow, he said, so faith placed in a parent, a saint or a leader can become fragile. An idea, by contrast, can be tested on its own merits.
- Religion can console, but consolation is not proof.
- Most people follow the faith they grew up with, not one they chose.
- Ideas should be tested through logic and reason, not accepted because of who said them.
He was also blunt that the world’s major religions are not interchangeable. In his view, saying they are all the same is “nonsense”—they are different, and those differences deserve honest examination.
Why this lands now
For an audience that follows celebrities for where they are and what they are doing, this is a different kind of sighting: a leading voice in Hindi cinema speaking plainly about belief rather than a film, a launch or an airport look. It is also a reminder that Akhtar’s public persona has long been built on rationalism and the willingness to ask uncomfortable questions.
That matters because public figures often keep personal belief private. When someone of Akhtar’s stature speaks this directly, it gives fans a chance to see the worldview behind the words they already know from his songs and scripts.
The practical takeaway is not about agreeing or disagreeing with him. It is about pausing before defending a belief to ask whether it was chosen or inherited, and whether the comfort it brings is being mistaken for proof.
Source: Hindustan Times
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