4 min readMumbaiMar 10, 2026 10:48 AM IST
There was a time, not too long ago, when repeated feuds on X (formerly Twitter) between celebrated director Shekhar Kapur and veteran lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar frequently made headlines. One of the most widely discussed flashpoints came when a sequel to their popular collaboration, Mr India, was announced. Shekhar had taken offence at the time, saying no one had sought his permission as the director of the original film. Javed had responded sharply, arguing that the film was never Shekhar’s to begin with. Javed Akhtar was the writer of the film, and Shekhar directed it.
‘Mr India’s story was never mine’
Recently, in a conversation with The Lallantop, Shekhar was asked about that public disagreement. Reflecting on the episode, he said, “When there were talks about Mr India 2, they were planning to make it with another director. I only said, ‘At least talk to me once.’ Then he tweeted asking what I had even done. He said, ‘I gave the script, I created the situation, I gave the story. You simply did the work well.’ So I said, ‘Alright.’ That was it, nothing else.”
When asked about Javed’s claim that the story belonged exclusively to him, Shekhar said he had no objection to that view. “That’s his point of view, and he is right. The story wasn’t mine. What is there for me to feel bad about? It’s not my story, and I agree even now. It is a story by Salim-Javed. He is the writer of the film and I have no rights over it.”
‘Javed Akhtar completely misunderstood my point’
During the same conversation, Shekhar was also asked about a tweet he posted in 2019 in which he said he had always been somewhat fearful of “intellectuals,” who made him feel insignificant, even though they had embraced his films. At the time, Shekhar had not clarified the context of the tweet, but several social media users interpreted it as a response to a group of prominent public figures who had written an open letter to the establishment raising concerns about growing intolerance in the country.
Reacting to Shekhar’s tweet back then, Javed publicly criticised him in a series of posts, suggesting that the filmmaker “needed help” and adding that there was “no shame in meeting a good psychiatrist.” Addressing the controversy now, Shekhar said the remark had been misunderstood. “He completely misunderstood what I meant by intellectuals. I still say that I never considered myself intellectual. When I started making films, they embraced me, so I never knew when the intellectuals, the people who look at cinema intellectually, liked my films or didn’t like them. I’m always a little concerned about that. But he took it in a completely different context. I wasn’t referring to those intellectuals; I was talking about critics of cinema. I just let it go because he misunderstood what I was saying.”
For the unversed, Javed had written in one of his tweets at the time: “Who are these intellectuals who embraced you and you found that embrace like a snake’s bite? Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Ramachandra Guha? Really? Shekhar saab, you are not well. You need help. Come on, there is no shame in meeting a good psychiatrist.”
