Shabana Azmi calls Aparna Sen's 80th birthday a 'State Event in Bengal'; says, "She’s my dearest friend"

As the iconic actress-filmmaker Aparna Sen turned 80 on October 25, her best friend and frequent collaborator Shabana Azmi flew from Mumbai to Kolkata to attend the grand celebration held in honour of the still-gorgeous Sen. Just before boarding her flight, Shabana said with affection, “But of course I have to be there. How could I not? Aparna turning 80 is a state event in Bengal. After Suchitra Sen, Aparna is Bengal’s most treasured actress.”

Shabana turns positively gooey-eyed when speaking about her dear friend. “I’m sorry if this sounds hagiographic, but that’s because you’ve caught me in this frame of mind! She is my dearest, dearest friend. I love and respect her deeply. Aparna is an extremely intelligent person — one can discuss any subject wi’th her. Over the years, we’ve developed a relationship where I immediately slip into a daft mode in her presence, and she scolds me like a schoolteacher!”

Shabana cherishes Aparna not just as a confidante but also as a filmmaker. “Her understanding of cinema is profound. I wish I could get her unlimited funds to make films without worrying about budgets. It’s not that I adore all her films — I’m honest with her about my opinions, and she takes it in the right spirit. I tease her endlessly about her quaint English, and she teases me back about my ‘Bombay accent’.”

The two ever beautiful and fiercely intelligent artists first bonded while working on the enigmatic Sati (1989), where Shabana played a woman married to a tree. “Before Sati, I acted in Aparna’s telefilm Picnic, in which her daughter Konkona played my daughter,” Shabana recalls. “But it was during Sati that we became truly close. I played a mute woman in 19th-century Bengal, married to a tree because her horoscope predicted her husband’s death. Most of the film was shot in torrential rain. The studio was filled with cold water, and when I caught a cold and cough, they tried heating the water — which only made it worse! I was seriously ill with pneumonia after Sati. But that film began a wonderful friendship that has lasted to this day. I remember, in those days, Aparna had very low self-esteem. She just wouldn’t accept — let alone acknowledge — her own talent and beauty.”

In 2008, Shabana was all set to assist Aparna on what would have been her first Hindi film, Gulel. “The fact that Aparna and I are such close friends made it an easy decision. When she narrated flashes of her script for Gulel, I immediately told her I wanted to assist her. She said, ‘Sure, but what are you going to do?’ Aparna joked that I’d be her slave! When she made the telefilm Picnic, I had translated her dialogues into Hindi. Assisting her felt like a natural progression. Unfortunately, Gulel never happened.”

Eight decades on, Aparna Sen continues to command admiration and affection — from audiences, peers, and dearest friends like Shabana Azmi, who celebrated her milestone birthday not just as a colleague, but as a sister in spirit.

Also Read: Konkona Sen Sharma reflects on Luck By Chance; says, “It is such a sparkling, fantastic script that I was just blown away”

from Featured Movie News | Featured Bollywood News - Bollywood Hungama
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