Javed Akhtar calls out ‘creative bankruptcy’ in Bollywood, reveals he refused to rewrite his songs for Border 2: ‘What is the need to recreate?’

“They did ask me to write for the film, but I refused. I really feel this is a kind of intellectual and creative bankruptcy. You have an old song, which did well, and you want to put it out again by adding something? Make new songs or else accept that you cannot do the same level of work. Whatever is bygone, let that be. What is the need to recreate it?,” Akhtar told India Today.

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He quoted the example of Chetan Anand’s 1964 seminal war drama Haqeeqat, starring late Dharmendra, which was a major precedent for him when he was writing the lyrics for Border. “And its songs were not ordinary ones. Be it ‘Kar Chale Hum Fida’ or ‘Main Yeh Sochkar Uske Dar Se Utha Tha’. Those were such brilliant songs, but we didn’t use them. We wrote new ones, we made absolutely different songs, and people liked them too. You are making a movie again, so create new songs. Why are you depending on the past? You have accepted that we can’t do it. We will live with the past glory,” added Akhtar.

The songs of Haqeeqat were composed by the legendary Madan Mohan. The late musician’s unused tunes were used for Yash Chopra’s 2004 blockbuster cross-border romance Veer-Zaara, and Javed wrote lyrics for that album. The lyrics of Haqeeqat’s songs were written by Kaifi Azmi, renowned poet and the father of Akhtar’s wife Shabana Azmi. Both the songs that Akhtar mentioned were sung by Mohammed Rafi.

Border 2’s most popular song “Ghar Kab Aaoge,” originally composed by Anu Malik, has added Mithoon as the additional music composer. While Roopkumar Rathod and Sonu Nigam return to lend their voices to the rehashed version, Arijit Singh, Vishal Mishra, and Diljit Dosanjh join in too.

Akhtar offered an apt response to the question of whether Border songs were being used to stir nostalgia among the audience. “You create new nostalgia then,” said Akhtar. Interestingly, Akhtar has written additional lyrics for songs like “Khaike Paan Banaraswala”, “Yeh Mera Dil,” and “Main Hoon Don” for his son Farhan Akhtar’s 2006 hit Don, a remake of Chandra Barot’s 1978 cult classic of the same name. While Akhtar was a co-screenwriter on that one with Salim Khan, the lyrics of those songs were written by Anjaan and Indeevar.

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Meanwhile, Border 2, co-produced by JP Dutta and his daughter Nidhi Dutta’s JP Films and Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series, is helmed by Anurag Singh of Kesari-fame. While Sunny Deol returns from the original cast, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, and Ahan Shetty among others are the new entrants. Border 2 is slated to release in cinemas on January 23.