Shabana Azmi


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Shabana Azmi
  • Date of Birth: 18 September, 1950
  • Place of Birth: New Delhi, India
  • Biography: Shabana Azmi is one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema. She is an actress as well as a social activist, and her performances in films in a variety of genres have generally earned her praises and awards. She is married to storywriter Javed Akhtar.

    She was born on 18 September 1950, to parents Kaifi Azmi, a renowned poet and writer of Urdu, and Shaukat Azmi, a well known stage actress. Her brother, Baba Azmi, is a cinematographer. Her parents had an active social life, and their home was always throbbing with people and activities. Early in childhood, the environment in her home inculcated into her a respect for family ties, social and human values; and her parents always supported her to develop a passion for intellectual stimulation and growth. She completed a graduation degree in Psychology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, followed by a course in Acting at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. She topped the list of successful candidates of 1972. In the initial stage of her career, she was linked to noted film director Shekhar Kapur, but married Javed Akhtar, a famed lyricist, poet and Bollywood scriptwriter on 9 December 1984. It was Akhtar’s second marriage, the first being with the Bollywood scriptwriter, Honey Irani.

    Her first movie to be released was Shyam Benegal’s Ankur (1972), which won the national award. However, her first film was an art film, made by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Faalsa, which was released in 1974. Her roles in both the films attracted positive comments both from the reviewers and the audiences. She received the national awards consecutively for three years from 1983 to 1985 for her roles in movies, Arth, Khandhar and Paar. Another film named Godmother (1999) brought her another national award taking her tally to five national awards. Shabana’s acting has been characterized by a life like real depiction of the roles played by her. In Mandi she acted as a madam of a whorehouse, and to act this role she put on weight and even chewed betel. Real life like portrayals continued in almost all of her movies with a variety of roles, including a tragic role of a woman named Jamini resigned to her destiny in Khandhar, and a typical urban wife, homemaker and mother in Masoom. She also did many roles in experimental and parallel cinema. Deepa Mehta’s 1996 film Fire depicts her as a lonely woman, Radha, in love with her sister-in-law. Radha being the name of a goddess and the subtle reference to lesbianism drew severe protests from many social groups of India, and also threats of ban by authorities. Her role as Radha brought her international recognition with the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 32nd Chicago Film Festival and Jury Award for Best Actress at Outfest, Los Angeles. Some of her noted films include Shyam Benegal’s Nishant (1975), Junoon (1978), Susman (1986), and Antarnaad (1992); Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi; Mrinal Sen’s Khandhar, Genesis, Ek Din Achanak; Saeed Mirza’s Albert Pinto Ko Guussa Kyon Aata Hai; Sai Paranjpye’s Sparsh and Disha; Gautam Ghose’ Paar; Aparna Sen’s Picnic and Sati ; Mahesh Bhatt’s in Arth; John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka(1988), Roland Joffe’s City of Joy (1992); Vinay Shukla’s Godmother. Her other popular films include Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish (of Manmohan Desai) and Prakash Mehra’s Jwalamukhi. Shabana’s debut to the small screen began with her acting in a soap opera with a cause, Anupama, that is, the unique or the unparallel. She did the role of a modern woman who while endorsing the traditional ethos and values negotiated more freedom for herself. She had also participated in many stage plays, and notable among them include M. S. Sathyu’s Safed Kundali (1980), which was a version of the Caucasian Chalk Circle; and Farouque Shaikh’s Tumhari Amrita, which ran almost five years. She toured Singapore for about a month on an assignment by the Singapore Repertory Company, doing role in Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of Ibsen’s Doll House, which was directed by Rey Buono. Pointing out the differences in all these mediums, she once remarked that the theatre was really the actor’s medium; the stage was actor’s space; cinema was the director’s medium; and television was a writer’s medium.