Shabana Azmi on her character in Lahore 1947, “To say she weeps copiously would be an understatement, I felt like Leela Chitnis and Nirupa Roy combined”

In her unparalleled 50-year career, Shabana has worked with every director from Shyam Benegal and Satyajit Ray to Mrinal Sen to Manmohan Desai and Brij Sadanah. What surprises the inimitable Shabana Azmi is the fact that she has never worked with Rajkumar Santoshi before. “We’ve both been working in the same film industry for decades. Why didn’t we ever come together before?”

She admitted doing Lahore 1947, an adaptation of Asghar Wajahat's play ‘Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhya Woh Jamiya Nahin’, has been a highly fulfilling experience for her. “I play this matriarch who just won’t let go of her ancestral home. Woh apna pushtaini makaan chhodna nahin chahti. It is a very tragic but brave character.”

And Shabana had to cry a lot. “I’ve never played such a rondhu (cry baby) character in my life. To say she weeps copiously would be an understatement. I felt like Leela Chitnis and Nirupa Roy combined.”

That apart, Lahore 1947 was a whole lot of fun for Shabana. “I had never worked with Sunny before. I worked with his father last year and now Sunny… Preity Zinta also was a first for me. We got along like a house on fire,” she said.

But Shabana’s greatest takeaway from the experience was something else. “I lost more than 15 kgs for Santoshi's film. Since I had to play this frail looking woman, I had to lose weight. I gladly did.”

Shabana Azmi is unarguably one of the greatest female actors of Hindi cinema. Her body of work and her range of performances are beyond staggering.

Over lunch at her stunning home in Mumbai we broached the subject of her golden-jubilee anniversary all across the world.

Shabana confessed she finds the panegyrics hard to digest. “Itni taareef .. bahot zyada hai. I know what I am capable of. But I am not worthy of so much attention. Of course, I appreciate all these events where I am honoured for fifty years of acting. But there is so much more to achieve. This is not false modesty. It is the reality. I have so much more to achieve before I can sit back smugly and consider myself great,” she said.

Modesty apart, Shabana Azmi has rewritten all the rules of the heroine’s place in Hindi cinema. She is known to question her directors about her characters until they are ready to climb up the wall.

She narrated her experience with Karan Johar during Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. “I was supposed to be cooking in the kitchen, with my hair flying open and wearing a saree that normally women wear to a wedding,” she said. “I asked him how this made sense. Karan told me, ‘This is my film and that’s how my characters dress.’ Arguments apart, I love Karan and his cinema. I would love to work with him again.”

We broached the subject of the performances that she holds close to her heart. “Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth for sure. It changed the mind-set on how single women should live their lives. To this day, I’ve women coming to me to talk about Arth. I also like my performance in Deepa Mehta’s Fire. It is the performance where I’ve made the least number of mistakes,” said the veteran actress.

Also Read: Shabana Azmi to be felicitated by MAMI with Excellence in Cinema Award on October 18

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