He has remade classics and spun GenNext’s first cult film. And now, Farhan Akhtar—singer, actor, director—gets ready with a new act
You’ve made all the arrangements to embarrass me,” says Farhan Akhtar as he picks up the guitar at a Mumbai hotel during a photo-op. Akhtar, the cool dude of Bollywood directors, is just being flippant. He’s hardly embarrassed. He has been playing the instrument for 12 years now, much before he thought he would debut as an actor and singer in another buddy flick Rock On.

The 34-year-old looks the part; he is lean and fit though the hair he grew for his role of a rock star has been cropped short. As he strums the guitar, I recall Shankar Mahadevan telling me. “Farhan with his guitar is quite a sight — he just rocks it. It is unbelievable that he has actually learned playing the guitar on his own, downloading chord charts, fingering techniques from the Internet, strumming and singing along, all on his own.”
Everybody who’s known him has a favourite Farhan Akhtar moment to share. When I meet Akhtar, he is back from an “energising Swiss holiday” with family and ready to plunge into the string of live rock concerts that will be part of the film’s promotion—and will see him reinvent himself as new Bollywood’s mainstream multitasker.
A fortnight ago, Akhtar sprang a surprise when he took the stage with Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy at Rock On’s music release. Those who watched him sing haven’t stopped raving and swamping his Facebook profile with praise.

... contd.