New Delhi: Veteran lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar, known not to mince his words while commenting on what he feels, says he has to write Hindi dialogues in the Roman script for the new generation of actors today because “they can’t read anything else.”
Speaking at a session titled ‘Hindi & Urdu: Siamese Twins’, held on Thursday evening at the India International Centre here, the 79-year-old poet said, “In the film industry, we write (Hindi) dialogues in Roman (English script) for most of the new crop of actors today. They can’t read anything else,” Akhtar told a packed house at the CD Deshmukh Auditorium.
Speaking with Professor Alok Rai, he said language belongs to a region and has nothing to do with religion, PTI reported. “It’s been about 200 years since the separation of Hindi and Urdu was accepted by the authorities. But they were always one. The Bengalis of the erstwhile East Pakistan said, ‘We’ll die but not study Urdu, we want another country (Bangladesh).’ Who were these 10 crore people, did they speak Urdu?
“Do the Arabs in the Middle East speak Urdu? Urdu is the language of only the Indian subcontinent. This has nothing to do with religion. You go and tell people of Tamil Nadu that Hindi is the language of Hindus, see what happens then,” he added.
Akhtar advocated that there is a need for a dictionary of Hindustani words.
“You can’t speak any Urdu phrase without using Hindi terms. The syntax is the same, 90 per cent of the vocabulary is the same, why can’t some of us scholars, writers and researchers put together a common dictionary in the forgotten language which we call Hindustani? A dictionary with some of the excellent words of both languages Hindi and Urdu in one place. Imagine how rich our vocabulary will be!” As a film writer, he knows when to use a word of Hindi or Urdu, he said.
“That’s because I’m writing Hindustani for Hindustanis (Indians). I’m not writing for Urdu wallahs and Hindi wallahs. I’m writing for Hindustanis. The day Hindustanis develop an interest, the language will automatically become fine.” Language, culture, values, and aesthetics are “dynamic in nature”, said Akhtar, adding they would die if they become stagnant, the report added.