Early Life
He was born in Gwalior, (Madhya Pradesh) to Jan Nisar Akhtar, a Bollywood film songwriter and Urdu poet, and singer Safia Akhtar, a teacher and writer. His original name was Jadoo, taken from a line in a poem written by his father: "Lamba, lamba kisi jadoo ka fasana hoga". He was given the official name of Javed since it was the closest to the word jadoo. Amongst his family members who are poets are the Urdu poet Majaz (maternal uncle), and his grandfather, Muztar Khairabadi, and Maulana Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, a noted philosopher, poet and religious scholar of the nineteenth century. Akhtar's younger brother, Salman Akhtar, is a psychoanalyst practicing in the United States.
Having lost his mother while very young, Akhtar's early years were spent in Lucknow, Aligarh and Mumbai, mostly with relatives. He studied in Colvin Taluqdars' College in Lucknow and the Minto Circle where he completed his matriculation from Aligarh Muslim University. After matriculation, Akhtar acquired a B.A. from Saifiya College in Bhopal. A gifted debater in college, he won the Rotary Club Prize frequently.
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