Farhan Akhtar started his career by working as an apprentice with cinematographer-director, Manmohan Singh at age 17, for films like Lamhe (1991); before going on to assist director, Pankaj Parashar in film Himalayputra (1997), followed by working in a television production house for three years, doing various jobs.

He made his writing and directorial debut in Hindi cinema with the 2001-hit, Dil Chahta Hai, produced by Excel Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., a production company he co-established along with Ritesh Sidwani in 1999.The movie told the story of three friends (played by Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna), recently graduated from college and dealing with issues of love and friendship. It was a critical and commercial success, especially popular among the younger generation. It earned quite a few nominations at various award shows, including for Best Screenplay, Direction and Film. It won that year’s National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

Akhtar then moved onto his next project, Lakshya (2004), a movie about an aimless youngster finally setting a goal for himself, starring Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta. Though the movie did not do as well at the box-office, it won him much critical acclaim. The script of the movie was authored by his father Javed Akhtar.

He then directed a remake of the 1978 Amitabh Bachchan film, Don titled Don – The Chase Begins Again which starred Shahrukh Khan in the title role. The film released on 20 October 2006. Though the movie was critically hammered, it proved to be a great success at the box office, grossing over 50 crores, and being the fifth biggest hit of the year.In 2007 he produced the film Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. which performed fairly well at the box office.

In 2007, he directed, Positive, a 12-minute short film on HIV stigma and the need for family support for the patient. Shot in Mumbai, it was part of ‘AIDS JaaGo’ (AIDS Awake), a series of four short films, 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.The film stars, Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi and a debutant actor, Arjun Mathur.

In 2008, Akhtar made his acting debut in Rock On!!. It was critically acclaimed as well as a box office hit, doing exceptionally well particularly in the metros.He also appeared as the male lead in his sister Zoya’s directorial debut, Luck By Chance. His latest film is Kartik Calling Kartik. Two more movies are scheduled to release: Dhruv and Gulel.In 2011 Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is scheduled to release in which he co-stars with hrithik.

Akhtar also made his singing debut in Rock On!!, singing in most of the movie’s songs. He was even supposed to sing a song for Blue, which has music by A. R. Rahman. However this could not happen as Akhtar was shooting for Kartik Calling Karthik then and could not find the time.

He has appeared as a judge on a few shows on television, including the first season of the dance-reality show, Nach Baliye (2005), and the beauty pageant, Femina Miss India (in 2002). He also hosted a TV show on NDTV Imagine, called Oye! It’s Friday!.

The transition from behind the camera to the front as an actor has not been an easy process for me, said Bollywood filmmaker Farhan Akhtar.

”As a director, there has to be a clarity with which you communicate with the cast and crew on the sets. But an actor has to deal with his internal confusion as to whether he is essaying the right emotions required of the character he is portraying. It is an intuitive process and even though it is not easy, I am comfortable in both roles. As a director, I am creating my own vision on celluloid whereas as an actor, I am being part of somebody else’s vision,” said Farhan while interacting with reporters on sidelines of a function where he was announced as a brand ambassador of the German watch ‘A Lange & Sohne’ last evening.

Farhan, who strode to fame with his debut film ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ few years ago, is making his debut as an actor in Abhishek Kapoor’s ‘Rock On’. He plays the lead vocalist of a band and the film spans ten years in the lives of the band members which includes Farhan himself, Arjun Rampal and Purab Kohli.

Farhan will also be seen playing the lead in sister Zoya Akhtar’s debut directorial venture, which goes on floors in April.

To a question on whether he would give up direction if his acting career flourishes, Farhan replied, ”I am not quitting direction at any cost.” Farhan said his directorial project will go on floors this October. ”It is tentatively titled ‘Voice from the Sky’ and is a Hindi movie,” he said.

We don’t know whether it’s another of those false alarms, but we heard that the makers of Dil Chahta Hai, Farhan Akhtar and his producer-partner Ritesh Sidhwani are toying with the idea of making a sequel to their first and most successful film DCH.

And though none of them are willing to talk about it, we asked Akshaye Khanna who played one of the male lead along with Aamir and Saif.

He too denied any such development. “Not that I know of any such thing,” he said. Another rumour bites the dust.

Dil Chahta Hai  billed as Do Your Thing in English, although the title literally means The Heart Desires) is a 2001 Bollywood movie. It was directed by Farhan Akhtar and was a hit in cities in India and overseas. Those who liked it said it broke new ground by showing Indian youth as they are today.

All the characters are upper-class and cosmopolitan. They live in lavish houses, wear designer clothes, attend art exhibitions and performances of Western opera, and travel overseas as a matter of course. They even go on dates — a Western practice which is considered scandalous by most Indians. Some critics say that this is why the film did not do well in the villages; the lifestyle depicted was just too foreign.

City sophisticates, however, appreciated the style of the film as well as its setting. One song sequence recapitulates Bollywood dance history; one song drops the usual dance accompaniment and establishes the character’s state of mind through lyrics and a moody photo collage. There is an extended opera sequence and a song-and-dance inside a painting. The director is tweaking Bollywood conventions in a knowing way.

The film’s style extended to the music, by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Many film fans thought that the music was fresh and different.

Story line

The movie tells the story of three friends graduating from college and facing life as adults.

Each character has a different outlook towards life, and love in particular:

* Akash (played by Aamir Khan) does not believe in love and says that one should never keep a girlfriend for more than two weeks.
* Sameer (played by Saif Ali Khan) is genial, well-meaning, desperately romantic and confused. He is prone to romantic infatuations; each time, he is sure that this time he has found true love.
* Siddharth, or Sid, (played by Akshaye Khanna} is a painter. He is the most serious of them all; dedicated to his work and not interested in trivial romances.

Akash is not only a cad in his personal life (breaking hearts, proposing to a girl named Shalini in jest), but a mischief-maker in his friends’ lives. He engineers a breakup between Sameer and Sameer’s girlfriend, then proposes a vacation trip to the beaches of Goa.

Sameer, predictably, falls in “love” in Goa, with a pretty Swiss girl, a story that ends in disaster. He returns home to find that his parents have arranged a meeting with a potential marriage prospect. He resists as he doesn’t want an arranged marriage, but the instant he sees the girl, he decides that she is the one. Unfortunately, she already has a boyfriend. Sameer has to hide his unrequited love and content himself with her friendship.

Sid, in the meantime, is falling in love too. A lovely older woman, a divorcee, has moved next door. Sid befriends her, then finds that he can’t help loving this utterly unsuitable person. Everything goes wrong. Akash’s offensive remarks about this relationship create a major dent in the friendship and Sid and Akash refuse to talk to each other. Sid’s mother is horrified. Tara hears that Sid has quarrelled with friends and family because of her and feeling that she has ruined his life, refuses to see him.

Akash is also experiencing romantic upheaval. His parents send him to Sydney, to work in the family business. On the flight to Sydney, he meets Shalini again. She has no reason to trust or like him, but after they run into each other repeatedly, they both start to feel a certain “something.” She presses him to tell her how he feels; he refuses. She then declares that she is returning to India to marry. Akash lets her go, then realizes that he can’t live without her.

All three chums have fallen in love and all of them have — so far — been unlucky in love. Is there a happy Bollywood ending? For two of the characters, yes. For one, no. However, in the last scene of the movie, it is suggested that even the heart-broken character has met someone who will heal his wounds.