Brazen and irreverent, as his friends describe him, Farhan Akhtar had no clue what he wanted from life after dropping out of college. According to his parents, writer-turned-director Honey Irani (Akhtar) and ace screenplay writer Javed Akhtar, he didn’t look like opting for a career in films in a hurry. He did take his time. For two years, he just watched films, at least two films a day. Then one day he joined Pankaj Parashar, who was directing Akshaye Khanna's debut film Himalayputra. Next, he did a three-year stint with a production house called ScriptShop, doing everything - from production design to anchoring to post production. Adi Pocha of ScriptShop saw enough talent in the youngster to encourage him to writing. And he wrote his first film. Then one day, out of the blue, he requested his father Javed Akhtar to get him an appointment with actor Aamir Khan for a 'script narration'. A stunned father asked him to show the script, but he wouldn’t. He told his father he won’t show him his script until he was ready to shoot! Javed relented and arranged for a meeting between his son and Aamir Khan. Aamir loved the ‘young boy’s’ work and instantly said ‘yes’ to act in his film. When it hit the screen in 2002, Dil Chahta Hai made instant waves for its contemporary approach to story telling and Farhan emerged as the most innovative of the young directors emerging on the scene. His next film, Lakshya, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta, might not have made the same impact at the box office, but it gave ample indications to class Farhan as a direct to watch out for in time to come. His ‘remarking’ of Don (2006) might not have impressed the critics much, but it did remarkably well at the turnstiles contrary to the impression created by a section of the media. Farhan was apparently pressurized by the undercurrents of the ongoing Big B – SRK cold war. Directorially, Don II was a more refined film, if you leave the nostalgia quotient aside, than the original Don of 1978 and more acceptable to the now-generation.