Farhan Akhtar was born in Mumbai to screenwriters, Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani. He was brought up as an atheist.He did his schooling from Maneckji Cooper School, Juhu, and later joined H.R. College, for a degree in Commerce, though he left it, in the second year.

His stepmother is the actress Shabana Azmi. He is also the grandson of Urdu poet Jan Nisar Akhtar and the cousin of Bollywood film director and dance choreographer Farah Khan. His sister, Zoya Akhtar, recently made her directorial debut with Luck By Chance, in which Farhan was the main lead. Farhan is married to Adhuna Bhabani Akhtar, a hairstylist who runs BeBlunt Salon with her brother. They have two daughters: Shakya and Akira.

Bollywood actor/director Farhan Akhtar has isolated himself from rest of the world to write the screenplay for the sequel of “Don”.

According to a source, Farhan Akhtar is in competition with his father Javed Akhtar, to write an equally good script.

“Farhan is in competition with his own father. Trying to equal, let alone better what Javed Akhtar wrote in the first Don, is not an easy task. He has to get the writing right to make the sequel a worthy successor to the remake of the original Don”, a source said.

According to Farhan’s business partner Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan is completely involved in writing the screenplay of “Don 2”.