A child artiste, who began acting when she was just two-and-a-half years old, Honey Irani worked in films like Santan, Talaq and Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan in the 1950s. She and sister Daisy Irani were the most popular child actors at the time. When in her teens, she did a few films like Seeta Aur Geeta before she started assisting Ramesh Talwar in the ’70s. It was on the sets of the Ramesh Sippy directorial, Seeta Aur Geeta, that she met the man who would be her husband, Javed Akhtar. Javed was the writer of the film, along with Salim Khan. It was apparently laugh-at-first-sight for the couple – he adored her sense of humour; she loved his wit in return.

Even his proposal, when it came, was utterly original… “He was losing in a game of cards on the sets,” she narrated. “I said, ‘Let me pull a card for you’. He said, ‘If it’s a good one, I’ll marry you’. The card was good. He declared, ‘Chalo, chalo let’s get married.” she laughs. Interestingly, Javed asked Salim Khan to take his proposal to Honey’s mother. “Salim saab, a family friend, told my mom that this boy wants to marry her but he has no home, plays cards and drinks. My mom said, ‘Let her get married, she’ll learn a lesson and come back’.” The two got married on March 21, 1972. In fact, the scene in Sholay (1975) where Amitabh Bachchan takes Dharmendra’s proposal to Hema Malini’s aunt Leela Mishra was inspired by this real-life proposal.

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A tender 17 when she married the then-struggling Javed, the pampered Honey had big adjustments in store. With no home of their own, they relied on the kindness of Honey’s sister Maneka, who was married to filmmaker Kamran Khan (their children are Farah and Sajid Khan). They lived in an extra room of the flat that the Khans owned in Juhu. From not accompanying Javed to parties, to not applying make-up or hiring a maid, she did exactly as Javed wished, waking up at 4 am to fill water and sleeping on a water-sprinkled floor when it got too hot in summer – the second hand AC Javed managed to buy never worked! Yet those were happy days.

And then Zanjeer hit the screens. Success flowed in and so did the money. They bought a flat at Bandstand, and then their bungalow. Parties were a regular affair, with Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan, Pam and Yash Chopra, and Hiroo and Yash Johar jamming all night long. Ironically, as the good times flowed, love was lost. 

Around this time, Javed’s proximity to Shabana Azmi made news. It wrecked his marriage. Honey and Javed separated in 1978, amidst fights and ugly scenes; though they took care to keep their children Farhan and Zoya away from the bitterness. Eventually, it was the wronged wife, Honey who literally gave up her husband on a platter to his new woman. “I realised there was no point in living with a man who was no longer in love with me,” is how she explains it. She set him free. She even explained his decision to the children because he was unable to do it. She told them that their dad wasn’t leaving because of them; it was just that their mom and dad did not get along anymore…

Javed and Shabana married in 1984, while his divorce came through in ’84-’85. Honey never spoke a word against Javed or Shabana. She never wanted the children to develop feelings of hate or anger. She doesn’t even hold any resentment against Shabana, maintaining that while they are not exactly friends they share a good deal of respect. And as to the man who broke her heart, even here she has managed to keep resentment at bay. She believes Javed was simply too young to handle the huge success that came his way. And that’s how Honey Irani loved and lost and never stopped living.