Shabana Azmi: The Grand Dame of Indian Cinema
What better way to understand the versatile and accomplished actor and activist Shabana Azmi than through her own words shared in a fireside chat with filmmaker Mira Nair?
Shabana Azmi, daughter of the late Shaukat Azmi, a celebrated actress, was practically born into the world of films. The elder Azmi would strap baby Shabana on her back and take her to work at Prithvi Theater. By the time she turned four, the legendary Prithviraj Kapoor, the founder of the theater, had begun creating costumes for her and including her in group scenes.
Today, Azmi, a veteran of Indian cinema, boasts a career spanning 50 years and over 160 films. She has garnered five National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards. Among her numerous honors are the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, two of India's highest civilian awards.
[Left] Shabana Azmi with her parents Kaifi and Shaukat. (Photo: YouTube Video Screengrab) (Photo: marvel.fandom.com)
Married to poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, Azmi also serves as a member of the Rajya Sabha. She has been awarded five honorary doctorates, is a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, and has won the Martin Luther King, Jr.—César Chávez—Rosa Parks (KCP) Award from the state of Michigan. A former UN Goodwill Ambassador, she remains active in public health advocacy.
A versatile veteran
Over the decades, Azmi has delivered unforgettable performances that are embedded in our psyche. Some of her memorable roles include Lakshmi, a powerless servant girl in Ankur; Radha, a sad, middle-class housewife in a loveless marriage in Fire; Rukmini Bai, the aging brothel madam in Mandi; and Rambhi, a mafia queen in Godmother.
[Right] Azmi in Ankur, the 1974 film that was the first of many impactful ones in her illustrious 50-year career.
[Left] With documentary filmmaker Anand Pathwardhan (far right) at her first-ever morcha (protest march) in 1985. (Photo: Instagram @azmishabana18).
Since her debut in Shyam Benegal's Ankur in 1974, Azmi has consistently brought authenticity to her many roles, celebrating the survival spirit of spunky women. Brilliant at infusing real life into reel life, she knows how to absorb a complex character, make it her own, and turn it into a stunning performance that feels relatable. 
Working with acclaimed directors like Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, and Govind Nihalani, Azmi quickly established herself as a leading actor in art cinema. However, versatile as she was, her success in parallel cinema did not prevent her from also thriving in Bollywood blockbusters such as Amar Akbar Anthony, Neerja, and Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Her international credits include Madame Sousatzka, City of Joy, and The Halo.
[Right] As a brothel madam in Mandi.
Audiences in the U.S. have had the privilege of seeing her perform in Broken Images—Shabana Vs. Shabana. She mesmerized as the only actor on a bare stage, keeping viewers riveted for an hour without set changes or elaborate costumes. Despite being seated in one place, the audience felt like they had traveled with her into the innermost reaches of the protagonist's mind and heart.
[Left] As a Gujarati mob boss in Godmother.
In conversation with filmmaker Mira Nair
To mark Shabana Azmi's 50 years in cinema, the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), in September, featured her in a conversation with filmmaker Mira Nair. The two women, who have had storied careers in films in their unique ways, reminisced about their intertwined paths and shared stories from Azmi’s extraordinary life. It was an informal conversation, as if between friends. Of course, the room was full of over a hundred film buffs who delighted in eavesdropping on the conversation.
[Right] In Paar, with Naseeruddin Shah.
Born to actor Shaukat Azmi and poet Kaifi Azmi, Shabana was raised in a communal environment in Mumbai. Her childhood home, called the “Red Flat Hall” was a commune of the Communist Party of India. Speaking of those times of growing up with other children of party members, she says, "At nine, I lived in a commune with eight rooms, eight families, and only one bathroom and one toilet. Yet, there was harmony, and I never witnessed discord. I experienced brotherhood and camaraderie, which I took entirely for granted. Since we couldn't afford a maid, my father would take me to the Mazdoor Kisan meetings, putting me on his shoulders, and I had a ball because all the laborers used to fuss over me a lot.”
[Top left] In Fire, the first of Deepa Mehta's Elements trilogy, Azmi takes on taboo topics like lesbianism and patriarchy. [Top right] In Broken Images—Shabana Vs. Shabana, she mesmerized the audience with her solo performance, transporting them into the innermost reaches of the protagonist's mind and heart.
Since the Communist Party took most of her father’s earnings, they were left with a meager income of Rs. 40 a month. This meant her mother had to work. She started with being an announcer for Vividh Bharti. Despite these challenges, Azmi remembered a secular upbringing, celebrating all religious festivals—a tradition she continues.
Nair recalled staying in Azmi’s childhood home while editing The Reluctant Fundamentalist, noting how Azmi's upbringing in a communist household shaped her worldview. “Your father was a card-carrying communist, and your mother was a celebrated actor. You were surrounded by poetry, politics, and performance,” Nair said.
[Left] Azmi played an Indian immigrant living in London in Madame Sousatzka, the Hollywood movie with Shirley MacLaine in the lead.
The making of a star
The artistic influences only intensified at Janki Kutir, the family’s next home in Juhu, which shared a fence with the home of the dashing Shashi Kapoor. Just across the street was Prithvi Theater, one of the city’s most prominent hubs for cinema and theater.
Speaking about the ghazal mehfils that were a staple at Janki Kutir, Azmi recalls, “Abba would allow me to be at these mehfils on the condition I would not miss school the next day. Children were always included and never shushed away. I used to be very fascinated by the poetic language and the charged atmosphere of these mehfils. When Abba started taking Baba, my brother, and me to the mushairas, we would fall asleep and wake up only at the end from the thunderous clapping that ensued when my father recited. So, all these things were just taken for granted. I didn't even realize the process of how all these values were being built. Children are so sensitive, and anything they're exposed to becomes a part of them.”
[Right] Om Puri, Azmi, and Patrick Swazye in City of Joy.
While pursuing psychology at St. Xavier’s College, Azmi co-founded the Hindi Natya Manch with Farooq Sheikh because they realized there was just an English theater group at their university. And then they started winning all the awards: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Play. “We would take the ‘princely’ sum of 200 rupees after every college competition. Since I lived in Juhu, far from my college, Sheikh would hire a line of three taxis—one in front and one in the back, and we would ride like celebrities in the middle cab. It was great fun!”
She then trained at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Maharashtra. Speaking of what spiked her interest, Azmi recalls watching a film called Suman, starring Jaya Bhaduri. “I was fascinated by this kind of acting, which I hadn’t seen before. I got curious and wanted to join the Film Institute.”
When she went for the audition for admission at FTII, she forgot her lines, recalls Azmi with horror. “I was convinced I would not pass, but Taneja Saheb (founder of the acting department at FTII) said, ‘You were so much in the moment that you made up for forgetting your lines. So, we'll take you in.’” Azmi not only got in but also went on to win a gold medal and a scholarship there.
[Right] Azmi with Mira Nair at the recent New York Film Festival. The two women, who have had storied careers in films in their unique ways, reminisced about their intertwined paths and shared stories from Azmi’s extraordinary life.
Azmi’s film debut couldn’t have happened with a more acclaimed director than Shyam Benegal. He was looking for someone who could speak a dialect called Dattani, and was frustrated that none of the three people he had considered for the role—Waheeda Rehman, Sharda, or Anju Mahendru—could speak it. When Azmi was introduced to Benegal by an assistant as a possible candidate for this casting, he only wanted to know whether she spoke Dattani. When she said yes, she was signed up promptly. "I didn’t even know who Benegal was!" Azmi admitted. She recalls not having done any readings for the role and that they had absolutely no conversation about acting, the role, or anything about it. “I thought he was some fraud filmmaker! Eighteen days later, I was shooting for Ankur in Hyderabad.” Their collaboration continued with Azmi starring in several other notable films directed by Benegal, including Nishant (1975) and Mandi (1983).
The making of an activist
Always eager to get into the skin of the characters she is playing, Azmi, in 1984, when shooting for Paar, a film about the oppression of the poor and the underprivileged, befriended a sweeper woman to get to know a real-life situation of such exploitation. Besides observing her mannerisms—how she talked, ate, etc.—she was genuinely curious about the dynamics of social exploitation. “Her home was very small, with one room, no air, no light, and eight people living in that tiny space. Seeing that this woman had such tenacity and the ability to step outside her circumstances seized me so powerfully that I felt that if I went back to my world without doing anything for the kind of person she is, it would be a travesty of the trust she had placed in me. I couldn't just use her as a role model for my performance, hope to win a national award in the bargain, and then have nothing to do with her.’”
She continued, “You see, a time comes in an actor's life when you no longer can treat your work like a nine-to-six job. Some of the residue of what you are playing is bound to be left behind. The basic thing for an actor or artist is to be sensitive. And to ask ‘Why? Why is there injustice? Why is there poverty?’”
[Left] Receiving the prestigious Padma Bhushan award from Pratibha Patil, the former president of India.
Another film that impacted her similarly was Anand Pathwardhan’s Hamara Shahar (Bombay: Our City). It was about the demolition of slums—something that had been bothering her for a while. “A poem by my father, called Makaan, expresses the irony of the construction worker who puts his sweat and blood into the construction of a building, and then when it is built, there is a chowkidar (guard) at the entrance of the building preventing the worker from entering the very makaan he built.”
“It became clear to me that demolition is not the answer. It only creates worse slums out of already existing ones because people don't go back to the village. They come from there in hope, in search of work.”
“I went to a meeting called by Anand, the filmmaker, where these slum dwellers spoke with anguish about where they would go. Their homes had been demolished, and no compensation had been given to them, which the government had said they would do. When they decided to go on a hunger strike to demand their compensation and rights, I instinctively said I would also join them. Javed supported me, and without overthinking it, I joined the hunger strike.
“Of course, soon, we were in the papers. It scared my mother, and she called my father, who was in Patna at the time, pleading with him to talk to me to come to my senses. I got a telegram from my father saying, ‘Best of Luck, Comrade!’”
Azmi makes it a point to appreciate Shashi Kapoor, who came to her help during this strike—when no one else from the film industry did. He visited her at the site of the strike to show support and also spoke to the chief minister about the cause. That worked! Their demands were accepted, and Azmi broke the fast with some orange juice.
[Right] Posing with a hat bought on the streets of New York City. (Photo: Instagram @azmishabana18)
“I started getting increasingly involved in social causes, which enriched my life in so many ways because seeing injustice around you is just unbearable. I started getting so obsessed with activism that my film career took a back seat.This became quite apparent when Aparna Sen, the director, told me, ‘Shabana, something is happening to you from inside, and your face has changed. You look very strict. You look very stern. I wouldn't want to cast you because I want a softer face.’ But I couldn’t keep away from the activism because if you are not putting the power you have to constructive use, it's a significant opportunity lost.”
[Top] A family steeped in filmdom. Azmi with husband Javed Akhtar and his children from his first marriage to Honey Irani, Farhan and Zoya.
Addressing Nair, Azmi said, “Mira, I grew up like you, believing art should be used as an instrument for social change. And so, I became more comfortable with the two worlds, and it continues. Now, I have an NGO called Mijwan Welfare Society, which my father founded in the village where he was born. We've been working to empower women by providing education and skill development so they can finally earn a living. What that has done is it has changed the equation between the man and the woman because from being looked upon as a liability, the woman is suddenly being looked upon as an asset.”
[Right] Rocking the IIFA award for her role in Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani (Photo: Instagram @azmishabana18)
Shabana is in her 50th year of acting.
In her 50th year of acting, Azmi is clear about her choices. “I am now in a position where I do not have to do a film unless I want to. I'm not in the race. So, I'm not saying I should make this film because it will be good for my career; I should make it because I've never done it. And I choose my roles, even today. There's very little time when I'm not working. I’m working constantly, and I think that is important.”
“You know, life is still the stimulus. I don't know the technique, but I'm very curious. I'm interested in every little thing about the people I meet. I'm interested in them.
“But I'm also aware that this is not all about me. Filmmaking is much more of a collaborative medium, and the more you realize that film is a collaborative medium, the more you are willing to become humble, which is very important.”
Lavina Melwani is a New York-based writer for several international magazines and blogs at Lassi with Lavina.
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