{"id":424101,"date":"2026-01-19T22:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/424101\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T22:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:06:08","slug":"javed-akhtar-reveals-he-refused-to-write-border-2-songs-make-new-songs-or-accept-that-you-cant-do-the-same-level-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/424101\/","title":{"rendered":"Javed Akhtar reveals he refused to write &#8216;Border 2&#8217; songs: &#8216;Make new songs or accept that you can&#8217;t do the same level of work&#8217; |"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/javed-border-2.jpg\" alt=\"Javed Akhtar reveals he refused to write 'Border 2' songs: 'Make new songs or accept that you can't do the same level of work'\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/> As the songs of &#8216;Border 2&#8217; have been released, there&#8217;s a clear divide among listeners. While the makers leaned heavily on reworked versions of the iconic songs from the 1997 original, many fans who grew up with the film\u2019s soundtrack have expressed disappointment, arguing that the emotional depth of the original is missing. As social media filled with calls to bring back <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/anu-malik\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anu Malik<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/javed-akhtar\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Javed Akhtar<\/a>. In a recent interview, Akhtar revealed that the makers had approached him but chose to turn down the offer. Explaining his decision, he said during a chat with India today, \u201cThey did ask me to write for the film but I refused. I really feel this is a kind of intellectual and creative bankruptcy. You have an old song, which did well, and you want to put it out again by adding something? Make new songs or else accept that you cannot do the same level of work.\u201dAddressing the criticism around the film\u2019s music lacking emotional weight, Akhtar questioned the growing trend of revisiting and reworking old compositions. According to him, every film belongs to its own time, and its magic cannot be recreated.Reflecting on &#8216;Border&#8217; itself, he drew a parallel with earlier cinema. \u201cWhatever is bygone, let that be. What is the need to recreate it? We had a film before us also, which was Haqeeqat (1964). And its songs were not ordinary ones. Be it \u2018Kar chale hum fida\u2019 or \u2018Main yeh sochkar uske dar se utha tha\u2019. Those were such brilliant songs, but we didn\u2019t use them. We wrote new ones, we made absolutely different songs, and people liked them too.\u201dHe further added that revisiting past glory signals an inability to create something fresh. \u201cYou are making a movie again, so create new songs. Why are you depending on the past? You have accepted that we can&#8217;t do it. We will live with the past glory.\u201dWhen the conversation turned to the argument that rehashed songs help tap into nostalgia as a marketing strategy, Akhtar dismissed the notion and said, \u201cYou create new nostalgia then.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the songs of &#8216;Border 2&#8217; have been released, there&#8217;s a clear divide among listeners. While the makers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[147550,64,63,222950,28570,222953,222954,134,222951,44425,222952,222955],"class_list":["post-424101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-anu-malik","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-border-1997-soundtrack","tag-border-2","tag-creative-bankruptcy","tag-emotional-depth-in-songs","tag-entertainment","tag-haqeeqat-1964","tag-javed-akhtar","tag-lashkar-e-taiba","tag-reworked-songs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}