Farhan Akhtar Is Esquire India’s Newest Digital Cover Star

There are men who chase success, and then there are men who shape culture.

Farhan Akhtar has never been particularly interested in the former.

From the moment Dil Chahta Hai hit the silver screen in 2001 — a film so startlingly modern it split Indian cinema into a before and after — Akhtar has seemed less like a filmmaker and more like a force of redefinition. Two decades later, that instinct to disrupt rather than conform remains his truest signature.

But again, when your father is Javed Akhtar, one of the country’s most storied lyricists and screenwriters, and your mother, Honey Irani, a celebrated writer and actor, creativity isn’t a career choice. It’s an inheritance.

Add to that a sister like Zoya Akhtar — one of the most intelligent, fearless voices in contemporary Indian cinema — and you start to understand the world Farhan was born into.

With his inheritance and a strong lineage, he’s earned the right to be called a multi-hyphenate. And yet, to call him that almost feels almost lazy now. Director, writer, actor, producer, musician — sure, all true. But what binds these titles is not ambition; it’s curiosity. It’s this preoccupation with transformation — both on and off screen — that makes Farhan Akhtar one of Indian cinema’s most quietly radical figures. He doesn’t chase virality, doesn’t posture, doesn’t play the game. He works, disappears, re-emerges — each time with a deeper sense of self and sharper command over craft.

The most recent example of that are the stories he champions from the other side of the camera. Under Excel Entertainment, Akhtar has consistently backed voices that expand the frame of Indian storytelling — raw, unvarnished, and full of heart. Superboys of Malegaon is a perfect example: a small-town documentary about a group of dreamers remaking Bollywood on a shoestring budget, which became an international festival favourite and a quiet cultural phenomenon.

At 51, Farhan Akhtar stands as one of the few contemporary icons who have aged well. His trajectory reads less like a career and more like a meditation — on masculinity, on purpose, on what it means to live deliberately in an age of noise.

So it feels only fitting that a man of intellect, edge, and evolution — a true artist who’s never stopped questioning, never stopped learning — should front our latest digital cover.

This is Farhan Akhtar for Esquire India. The cover is here.

The rest will be unveiled soon.

Credits

Chairperson: Avarna Jain

COO: Jamal Shaikh

Editor: Rahul Gangwani

Fashion Director: Vijendra Bhardwaj

Photography: Sarang Gupta

Styling: Divyak D'souza

Editorial Mentor: Saira Menezes

Managing Editor and Interview: Sonal Nerurkar

Deputy Editor: Mayukh Majumdar

Hair: Saurabh Bhatkar

Make up: Devika Rathore

Styling Assistants: Khushi Bhatia; Brinda Patel

Bookings & Production: Varun Shah

Artist Management: Spice Official