Raj Babbar and Zeeshan Ayyub on Urdu, Hindustani Identity, Cinema | Live at Jashn-e-Rekhta

In this episode, Raj Babbar and Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub join Ambreen Khan for a warm, deeply personal conversation on Urdu, Hindustani identity, cinema, theatre, and the shared cultural memory of India.

Raj Babbar looks back at the home he grew up in, where the Urdu newspaper Milaap arrived regularly and even the Gita was read in Urdu script.

From childhood memories linked to Ghalib and Nazeer Akbarabadi to his early theatre training, he speaks about pronunciation, discipline, pauses, and why language shapes performance.

Zeeshan Ayyub reflects on upbringing, social responsibility, NSD, mentors, and the need to protect a shared Hindustani spirit that cannot be reduced to religion or labels.

The episode also moves into acting craft, the emotional truth behind performance, choosing roles, creative restlessness, and why AI may imitate technique but cannot replace lived human experience in art.

There is humour too, with rapid-fire moments on Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, romance in Urdu, and anger in Punjabi.