Everyone who is someone will be heading to producer Boney Kapoor’s residence on the evening of September 18. As the mighty Shabana Azmi turns a grand 75 on September 18, the producer has invited the Indian film fraternity to celebrate the occasion.
Shabana is touched by the gesture. “Boney and I were in college together. I’ve known Boney and his brother Anil(Kapoor), the entire family, forever. It is very kind of him. I just hope he won’t embarrass me with a cake and speeches, etc. I don’t like looking back. And sitting smugly on my laurels is the last thing you will find me doing.”
Shabana says she doesn’t feel the weight of her age. “Only when I am reminded of it, then I think about being this old. I have been lucky to be at the right place at the right time. I do not rate myself as excellent. I was trained to look for truth in a performance and have, once in a while, managed to achieve it when the script and the director are great. Film is a collaborative medium, and no actor can rise above the script .”
Shabana is a source of inspiration for generations of women and men. She doesn’t see herself as a role model. “I think we have a lot to learn from the younger generations. They are wired differently, and instead of listening to them, we keep lecturing them. I grew up in a democratic family where due consideration was given to both my opinion and my brother Baba’s(cinematographer Baba Azmi). We need to have less hierarchical and more interactive relationships with the young. My father never gave advice without being asked. I have to confess that both my mother and I did so quite freely and frequently!! I’m now learning to curb it.”
When asked to name the greatest influences in her life, Shabana says, “My parents, Kaifi and Shaukat, my husband Javed, Shyam Benegal, Shashi Kapoor, and Jennifer Kapoor. Then there are all the women I work with in the slums from whom I learned resilience…. imagine living under the threat of your home being demolished any day and yet being able to function! Also, the women in Mijwan. For an actor, life must be your resource base because you can enrich the character you play by drawing upon all the depth of your own experience. In the process of becoming a star, you get isolated from life because you are so surrounded by a concentric circle of people around you that you start living almost in a bubble. Kevin Spacey told me it’s a choice he has made to travel by tube, buy his groceries, etc. Can you imagine what would happen in India if Shah Rukh Khan decided to do that?!!”
When asked to name the five turning points in her Shabana responds promptly. “When I joined Film & Television Institute Of India, my first film Ankur, Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth …then, watching Anand Patwardhan’s documentary Bombay Our City, and finally when I protested against the killing of theatre activist Safdar Hashmi at the International Film Festival in Delhi,i where my film John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka was premiering.”
Any unfulfilled dreams? “As Barbra Streisand said, ‘I don’t want much, I just want more. Ask what I want and I will sing I want more of everything .. .everything.”
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