"The kind of rape that you see are not only sexual crimes but it shows the kind of anger that is teeming underneath the society and we blame it on cinema," Akhtar said at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet (TSKLM).
"There are people living under the same sky in the same territory but they are living in different economic zones, under different time zones. Some are in the 17th century, some in 18th, some in 19th and some in the 21st. So obviously exposure is through the media much makes me aware of what I am deprived of," he added.
To a question on the influence of cinema, he said everything that is happening - economic and social deprivations cannot be blamed to cinema.
"Cinema is a whipping boy. (But) We have to face the reality. It is the society that makes cinema. Cinema doesn't make society," the 71-year-old, who has written a number of superhit Hindi films including the iconic "Sholay", said.
Akhtar pointed out that wherever there are less cinema halls violence is high like in the north-east and the Kashmir valley.
"Violence is caste-based and economy-based. Let us not have the wrong diagnosis of a national problem because we will not be able to correct it then," he said.
