By The ReligionStars Team – Modified on: 18 May 2026
Javed Akhtar is among the most respected and influential figures in contemporary Indian culture. A renowned screenwriter, lyricist, and Urdu poet, he has deeply influenced Bollywood cinema through his talent, his gift for memorable phrasing, and the power of his writing.
Born into a family with a Muslim tradition, he belongs to a lineage of intellectuals and poets. His father, Jan Nisar Akhtar, was a lyricist and Urdu poet; his paternal grandfather, Muztar Khairabadi, was also a poet; and his great-great-grandfather, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, was a prominent religious scholar of Islam.
Yet Javed Akhtar did not follow the spiritual path associated with this family heritage. For several decades, he has publicly claimed a very different position: an openly embraced atheism, expressed consistently and without ambiguity.
Javed Akhtar’s position on religion leaves little room for doubt. He has declared himself an atheist many times, in interviews, on television, and in writing. His wording is direct: “I am not revealing a secret, I am saying something I have said many times, in writing or on television, in public… I am an atheist, I have no religious belief. And I do not believe in any kind of spirituality.” When asked what led him to this conviction, his answer was just as clear: “The answer is very simple: because I think.”
For him, atheism is therefore not merely a private opinion. It is also a public stance, openly embraced in an environment where religious pressure can be significant. In 2020, Javed Akhtar became the first Indian to receive the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award, presented each year by the Center for Inquiry to a person who has shown remarkable courage in defending rational thought and opposing religious dogma. This international award highlights the consistency and visibility of his positions over the years.
His intellectual journey has also been shaped by reading. In an interview with journalist Barkha Dutt, he explained: “Initially, I was an atheist because of my upbringing and my peers. Later, I read the works of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and others, which strengthened my convictions.” His daughter, filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, also shares this atheist worldview.
Javed Akhtar’s rejection of religious belief does not, however, mean a rejection of his heritage. Coming from a family with a Muslim tradition, marked by intellectual and spiritual roots linked to Islamic civilization, he sometimes defines himself as a “cultural Muslim.” This expression, which he uses himself, refers neither to religious practice nor to adherence to a dogma. Rather, it points to a civilizational, linguistic, and poetic heritage: that of Urdu culture and the Islamic intellectual heritage in which he grew up.
It is therefore important to distinguish between two dimensions. On the one hand, Javed Akhtar received an Islamic religious education within his family, which helped shape his culture and his relationship with language. On the other, since adulthood he has claimed a total absence of religious belief, a position he has maintained steadily to this day. He practices no religion, belongs to no denomination, and says he does not believe in any form of spirituality.
Some ideologically driven sources have attempted to question the sincerity of his atheism. However, they provide no new factual evidence. These criticisms therefore amount more to polemical commentary than to a well-founded challenge to Javed Akhtar’s public, consistent, and documented statements.
Javed Akhtar is atheist. This information has been officially confirmed.
No, Javed Akhtar is not Muslim in the religious sense of the term. He was born into a family with a Muslim tradition and sometimes describes himself as a “cultural Muslim,” in reference to his civilizational heritage. But he rejects all forms of religious belief or practice. For many years, he has publicly declared himself an atheist, believing neither in God nor in any form of spirituality. This position is confirmed by his own statements, by several recognized media outlets, as well as by the awarding of the Richard Dawkins Award in 2020.