Veteran actress Shabana Azmi, one of the most celebrated artists in Indian cinema, recently completed 50 years of her career in which she has starred in more than 160 films. Shabana Azmi has made a name for herself not only in independent cinema but also in the mainstream. She has a marvelous record of winning five National Film Awards for Best Actress for Ankur, Arth, Khandhar, Paar, and Godmother. She was also honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri in 1998 and the Padma Bhushan in 2012.
However, all of Shabana Azmi's brilliant accomplishments also came with their fair share of struggles. Do you know, she was once humiliated on the film set? Shabana Azmi once revealed how she was harassed emotionally on the sets of Parvarish by her choreographer Kamal. Parvarish was released in 1977 and starred Shammi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, and Neetu Kapoor.
Shabana Azmi was so disturbed by this incident that she even thought of quitting the Hindi film industry.
Speaking to Adi Pocha during a podcast, Shabana Azmi said, “I cannot dance to save my life. I have two left feet. I had asked Kamal Master, he was a choreographer. I said ‘Please give me rehearsals.’ He said rehearsal is not needed. You just have to clap."
It was later that Shabana Azmi got to know that there was a full-fledged dance performance that she had to ace.
"It was so frightening because I was with Neetu Singh. Even before I could figure out where I have to put my right foot, and left foot, Neetu would have done two rehearsals and sat over there," she said.
"I was really very nervous. I told Kamal Ji it was very complicated and can we change it a little bit. There were a lot of junior artists on the sets. He said ‘Okay, lights off. Now Shabana Ji is now going to teach Kamal dance master what steps to do'. It was so humiliating and bad that I just ran off the set. I was in these ghastly clothes. I went (out) to find my car was not there. In those clothes I started walking barefoot to my house in Juhu, crying away and saying ‘I am not going to work in any film anymore. I just don't want this humiliation."
Shabana Azmi said that it was director Manmohan Desai who hugged and comforted her after the incident. Later Neetu Kapoor also inquired about the incident and asked Sulakshana Pandit to intervene.
Shabana Azmi's struggles were not only in her professional life. Her mother Shukat, in her autobiography, shared that Shabana Azmi once tried to kill herself in childhood. She wrote, "She went to the school laboratory and ate copper sulfate. When her best friend Parna told her that Shabana had told her that I loved Baba more than her, I grabbed my forehead in despair."
But, despite these difficulties, Shabana Azmi now stands tall as one of the most respected actresses in India. She was last seen in Karan Johar's Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani which became a superhit, collecting over Rs 300 crore worldwide.
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