Javed Akhtar on Sinu Nigam's azaan tweet: Praying to God shouldn't disturb othe...

Veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar says that worshipping God and praying to him is good, but it should not disturb others.

God bless everyone. I'm not a Muslim and I have to be woken up by the Azaan in the morning. When will this forced religiousness end in India

— Sonu Nigam (@sonunigam) April 16, 2017

Akhtar, who was awarded the “best poet, lyricist and scriptwriter” in Bollywood at the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Awards 2017 on Friday night, was asked about singer Sonu Nigam’s comments demanding a ban on loudspeakers during azaan. “As far as I think, no matter if it’s a Masjid, Mandir, Church or Gurudwara, whatever is the place, do your prayers, but it shouldn’t disturb anyone else,” Akhtar said.

Actor Pankaj Kapur was also awarded for his versatile acting. He said, “I am grateful to be recognised for my work. Its a great honour to be associated with the name Dada Saheb Phalke, the first man of cinema as we call him father of cinema. So I am glad to be here and proud to be associated with the award.”

Besides them, some of the other celebrities who were given awards at the gala included Urvashi Rautela, Hema Malini, Anup Jalota, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Divya Khosla Kumar, Phalguni Pathak, Jubin Nautiyal, Kirti Kulhari, Juhi Chawla, Usha Nadkarni, Piyush Mishra, Rana Daggubati, Shoojit Sircar and Saiyami Kher.