It was a magical evening as a bevy of celebrities came together to mark the beginning of the centenary celebrations of legendary poet and activist Kaifi Azmi. Present on the occasion were family members Shabana Azmi, Baba Azmi, Tanvi Azmi, Javed Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar along with eminent personalities like Vidya Balan, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Poonam Dhillon, Madhu Chopra, Divya Dutta, Kanwaljit Singh, Neena Gupta, Tannishtha Chatterji and Aditi Rao Hydari.

A yearlong celebration with mushairas, plays, seminars, pen festival, and three book releases has been planned in India and abroad in honour of poet and activist, Kaifi Azmi starting from the 13th of January 2019 at NCPA, Mumbai with a special event called 'Raag Shayari'.

Kaifi Azmi who is recognized as one of the finest poets of our times has borne witness to an entire era of social changes. His first ghazal was 'Itna toh zindagi mein kisi ki khalal pade' that got him instant recognition. As a lyricist his most popular songs are from 'Kaagaz Ke Phool', 'Haqeeqat', 'Arth' and 'Heer Ranjha'. Heer Ranjha and his other film songs were written entirely in verse. Kaifi Azmi has also received the greatest number of literary and poetry awards for his works.