This Sunday is surely going to be one of the most significant day in Bollywood with two of the most successful people of the film industry – Farah Khan and Farhan Akhtar- sharing their birthday on the same date.
Filmmaker-actor Farhan Akhtar will turn 37 on the Sunday, while choreographer-director Farah Khan will celebrate her 46th birthday.
Farhan’s directorial debut ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ and ‘Lakshya’ both were box office hits. His acting skills were also appreciated by his fans in movies like ‘Rock On!!’, ‘Luck By Chance’ and ‘Karthik Calling Karthik’.
On the other hand, Farah entertained her fans both as a successful choreographer and also as a director of films like ‘Main Hoon Na’, ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Tees Maar Khan’.
Both Farah Khan and Farhan Akhtar not only share the common birth date, but interestingly, they are cousins as well.
In her long and significant career, Farah Khan choreographed dance routines for more than a hundred songs in over 80 Hindi films.
Farah got her first break as a choreographer in a Hindi film after ‘Masterji’ Saroj Khan walked out of ‘Jo Jeta Wohi Sikandar’, leaving all-time hit song ‘Pehla Nasha’ to her credit .
Farah had trained Colombian pop star Shakira for a Bollywood version of her iconic song Hips Don’t Lie for the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug 31, 2006, which was hosted in Radio City Music Hall.
She had also choreographed popular international singer Kylie Minogue for the song “Chiggy Wiggy” in Hindi film ‘Blue’ in 2009.
Farhan Akhtar commenced his significant career in Bollywood as an apprentice at the age of 17, with cinematographer-director,Manmohan Singh in the film Lamhe (1991) and also went on to assist director Pankaj Parashar in film Himalayputra (1997).
He also wrote lyrics for Gurinder Chadha’s 2004 Hollywood film, ‘Bride and Prejudice’.
In 2007, Farhan had directed a 12-minute short film titled ‘Positive’ based on HIV stigma and the need for family support for the patient.
The film was shot in Mumbai. The series of four short films was a part of ‘AIDS JaaGo’ (AIDS Awake), directed by Mira Nair, Santosh Sivan, Vishal Bhardwaj and Farhan Akhtar, in a joint initiative of Mira Nair’s Mirabai Films and voluntary organisations Avahan and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.