Farhan Akhtar on growing up in an inter-faith home, being raised ‘without a religion’: ‘I was taught to question everything’

Farhan Akhtar recently opened up about his upbringing and how he was raised without a specific religion by his parents, Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani. The filmmaker-actor shared insights into how his father instilled in him the importance of questioning everything around him. Farhan also reminisced about how, despite not adhering to a particular religion, he celebrated every festival—Holi, Diwali, Eid, Christmas—with equal gusto.

In a conversation with Faye D’Souza on her YouTube channel, Farhan said,, “My father raised me without a religion and to question everything. When you are raised without a religion who automatically question everything. He never told us don’t believe in God, we just imbibed what we saw. It was more about questioning thing and trying to apply logic or scientific evidence to things. Those things are important because something has to be provable before you can say that it is a fact otherwise it is a theory. Billions of people get by on faith and it is strange the comfort the people who have faith have, it is very difficult for people who don’t have faith to get that.”

Farhan continued by sharing his childhood experiences with festivals. He added, “As a kid festivals were the best thing to come of religion because you had fun time with your friends and got the best thing to eat. My mum and we celebrated each festival at home – Holi, Diwali, Eid, Christmas – and each festival was celebrated with as much fanfare. I think festivals are more cultural thing than a religious thing. it’s like you are celebrating a culture and that’s an amazing thing.”

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On the professional front, Farhan is currently focused on the third installment of his popular franchise Don. While the first two films featured Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role, the upcoming installment will see Ranveer Singh stepping in to replace SRK.