Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar Come Together for "baat," a Rare Family Conversation Live From London

In a first-of-its-kind event outside India, NISAU (National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK) and the SOAS South Asia Institute brought together three generations of one of Indian cinema's most influential families for an intimate evening of conversation. Titled "baat," the event featured Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar in discussion live from SOAS, University of London, on July 14.

The evening was framed around storytelling, creativity across generations, and what it means to build a body of work that lasts — themes that speak directly to a family whose individual members have shaped Hindi cinema and lyricism across decades, from Javed Akhtar's legendary screenwriting and poetry to Farhan and Zoya's work as some of the industry's most distinctive contemporary filmmaking voices.

Billed as an immersive, audience-led experience, the session invited attendees to come prepared with their own questions, turning the evening into a genuine dialogue rather than a scripted Q&A. The response reflected strong appetite for this kind of access, with the announcement drawing over a thousand likes and hundreds of comments within hours of going up.

For the UK's Indian student and alumni community in particular, the event carried added significance. NISAU has spent years building cultural and academic bridges for Indian students in Britain, and partnering with SOAS's South Asia Institute — one of the world's leading academic centers for South Asian studies — to bring the Akhtars together marks one of its more ambitious cultural programming efforts to date.

Events like "baat" underline a broader trend of Bollywood's biggest names increasingly engaging directly with diaspora audiences through intimate, conversation-driven formats rather than traditional promotional appearances, offering fans a rare, unfiltered look at how three generations of the same family think about craft, legacy, and each other's work.