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Early life and background
Shabana Azmi was born in a Muslim family. Her parents named, Kaifi Azmi - a renowned Indian poet and writer of Urdu, and Shaukat Azmi - a well known stage actress. Her brother, Baba Azmi, is a cinematographer. Her parents had an active social life, and their home was always throbbing with people and activities. Early in childhood, the environment in her home inculcated into her a respect for family ties, social and human values; and her parents always supported her to develop a passion for intellectual stimulation and growth.
She completed a graduation degree in Psychology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, followed by a course in Acting at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. She topped the list of successful candidates of 1972.[4]
Career
Her first movie to be released was Shyam Benegal’s Ankur (1972), which won the national award. However, her first film was an art film, made by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Faalsa, which was released in 1974. Her roles in both the films attracted positive comments both from the reviewers and the audiences. She received the national awards consecutively for three years from 1983 to 1985 for her roles in movies, Arth, Khandhar and Paar. Another film named Godmother (1999) brought her another national award taking her tally to five national awards.
Shabana’s acting has been characterized by a life like real depiction of the roles played by her. In Mandi she acted as a madam of a whorehouse, and to act this role she put on weight and even chewed betel. Real life like portrayals continued in almost all of her movies with a variety of roles, including a tragic role of a woman named Jamini resigned to her destiny in Khandhar, and a typical urban Indian wife, homemaker and mother in Masoom.
She also did many roles in experimental and parallel Indian cinema. Deepa Mehta’s 1996 film Fire depicts her as a lonely woman, Radha, in love with her sister-in-law. Radha being the name of a goddess and the on-screen depiction of lesbianism (perhaps the first in Indian cinema) drew severe protests from many social groups of India, and also threats of ban by Indian authorities. Her role as Radha brought her international recognition with the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 32nd Chicago Film Festival and Jury Award for Best Actress at Outfest, Los Angeles.
Some of her noted films include Shyam Benegal's Nishant (1975), Junoon (1978), Susman (1986), and Antarnaad (1992); Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi; Mrinal Sen’s Khandhar, Genesis, Ek Din Achanak; Saeed Mirza’s Albert Pinto Ko Guussa Kyon Aata Hai; Sai Paranjpye’s Sparsh and Disha; Gautam Ghose’ Paar; Aparna Sen’s Picnic and Sati ; Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth; Vinay Shukla’s Godmother. Her other films include the commercially successful Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish (of Manmohan Desai) and Prakash Mehra’s Jwalamukhi. Azmi has also starred in a number of Hollywood productions, the first being John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka (1988), followed by Roland Joffe’s City of Joy (1992), among others.
Shabana’s debut to the small screen began with her acting in a soap opera with a cause, Anupama, that is, the unique or the unparallel. She did the role of a modern Indian woman who while endorsing the traditional Indian ethos and values negotiated more freedom for herself. She had also participated in many stage plays, and notable among them include M. S. Sathyu’s Safed Kundali (1980), which was a version of the Caucasian Chalk Circle; and Farouque Shaikh’s Tumhari Amrita, which ran almost five years. She toured Singapore for about a month on an assignment by the Singapore Repertory Theatre Company, doing role in Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of Ibsen’s Doll House, which was directed by Rey Buono. Pointing out the differences in all these mediums, she once remarked that the theatre was really the actor’s medium; the stage was actor’s space; cinema was the director’s medium; and television was a writer’s medium.
Personal life
In the initial stage of her career, she was linked to noted film director Shekhar Kapur, but married Javed Akhtar, a famed lyricist, poet and Bollywood scriptwriter on 9 December 1984. It was Akhtar’s second marriage, the first being with the Bollywood scriptwriter, Honey Irani. Kaifi Azmi, a renowned Indian poet and writer of Urdu is her father. Her mother Shaukat Azmi is a well-known stage actress. Her brother is Baba Azmi; Farah Naaz and Tabu are her nieces.
Select filmography
She has acted in more than one hundred Hindi films, both in the mainstream as well as in parallel cinema. Several of her films have received attention in the international arena, including at the Norwegian Film Institute, the Smithsonian Institution and the American Film Institute. She has appeared in a number of foreign films, most of which have won international acclaim, including John Schlesinger’s Madame Sousatzka, Nicholas Klotz’s Bengali Night, Roland Joffe’s City of Joy, Channel 4’s Immaculate Conception, Blake Edwards' Son of the Pink Panther, and Ismail Merchant’s In Custody.
- Ankur (1974) - Laxmi
- Nishant (1976) - Sushila
- Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977) - Khurshid, wife of Mirza
- Sparsh (1980) - Kavita
- Arth (1982) - Mrs. Pooja Inder Malhotra
- Masoom (1983) - Indu D. Malhotra
- Mandi (1983) - Rukmini Bai
- The Bengali Night (1988) - Mrs. Sen
- Madame Sousatzka, (1988) - Sushita
- City of Joy, (1992) - Kamla Pal
- In Custody, (1993) - Imtiaz Begum
- Son of the Pink Panther (1993) - Queen
- Fire (1996) - Radha
- Saaz (1997) - Bansidhar (Bansi) Vrundavan
- Side Streets (1998) - Mrs. Chandra Bipin Raj
- Earth (1998) - voice of older Lenny
- Godmother (1999) - Rambhi
- Tehzeeb (2003) - Rukhsana Jamal
- Morning Raga (2004) - Swarnlatha
- 15 Park Avenue (2005) - Anjali "Anju" Mathur
- Waterborne (2005) - Heera Bhatti
- Umrao Jaan (2006) - Khannum Jaan
- Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007) - Nahid
- Loins of Punjab Presents (2007) - Rrita Kapoor
- Sorry Bhai! (2008) - Mother Gayatri
Social activism
Shabana Azmi has been a committed social activist, active in fighting AIDS and injustice in real life. Shabana Azmi has voiced her opinion on a variety of issues. Initially, her activism drew skepticism and was dubbed by some as a publicity gimmick. However, she proved her critics wrong and used her celebrity status to emerge as a high-profile social activist.[citation needed]
She had participated in several plays and demonstrations denouncing communalism. In 1989, along with Swami Agnivesh and Asghar Ali Engineer, she undertook a four day march for communal harmony from New Delhi to Meerut. Among the neglected social groups whose causes she has advocated are slum dwellers, displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants and victims of the earthquake at Latur (Maharashtra, India). The 1993 Mumbai riots appalled her and she emerged as a forceful critic of religious extremism. After the September 11 2001 attacks, she opposed the advice of an important religious leader calling upon the Muslims of India to join the people of Afghanistan in their fight by retorting that the leader go there alone. Her strong reaction encouraged other moderate Muslim leaders to counsel restraint and tolerance, and to shun terrorism.
She has campaigned against ostracism of victims of AIDS. A small film clip issued by the Government of India depicts an HIV positive cuddled in her arms and saying: “She does not need your rejection, she needs your love”. In a Bengali film named Meghla Aakash she played the role of a physician treating AIDS patients.
Awards and honors
National Awards
Azmi has received the coveted National Film Award for Best Actress five times:
- 1975 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Ankur
- 1983 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Arth
- 1984 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Khandhar
- 1985 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Paar
- 1999 - National Film Award for Best Actress, Godmother
Filmfare Awards
Winner:
- 1978 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Swami
- 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Arth
- 1985 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Bhavna
- 2006 - Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award
Nominated:
- 1975 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Ankur
- 1981 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Thodisi Bewaffai
- 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Masoom
- 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Avtaar
- 1984 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Mandi
- 1985 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Sparsh
- 2003 - Filmfare Best Villain Award for makdee
International awards
- 1993: Best Actress award for Libaas in North Korea
- 1994: Best Actress award for Gautam Ghose’s Patang at the Taormina Arte Festival in Italy
- 1996: Best Actress award for Fire at the Chicago International Film Festival
- 1996: Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film, for Fire in L.A. Outfest
Other awards
Shabana Azmi’s long association with movies and her performances in them, as also her work as a social activist and an active parliamentarian, had been well and widely recognized, including conferment with several awards. Other awards received by her include:
- 1988: Awarded the Padma Shri from the government of India.
- 1988: Yash Bhartiya Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for highlighting women’s issues in her work as an actress and activist.
- 1994: Rajiv Gandhi Award for "Excellence of Secularism"
- 1998: Star Screen Award Best Supporting Actress for Mrityudand.
- 1998: Was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund.
- 1999: Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, Best Actress for Godmother.
- 2004: Zee Cine Award Best Actor in a Supporting Role- Female for Tehzeeb.
- 2005: Star Screen Awards - Best Performance in an Indian Film in English for Morning Raga
- 2006: Gandhi International Peace Award, awarded [1] by Gandhi Foundation, London.
- International Awards for Best Actress for Gulzar’s Libaas in North Korea (1993), for Gautam Ghose’s Patang at the Taormina Arte Festival (1994) in Italy, and for Deepa Mehta’s Fire at the Chicago International Film Festival (1996).
- She was honoured with the coveted World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award [2]
- She was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Art by Chancellor of the University Brandan Foster by the Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire [3]
Since 1989, she has been a member of the National Integration Council headed by the Prime Minister of India; a member of National AIDS Commission (of India); and was nominated (in 1997) as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. The United Nations Population Fund appointed her as its goodwill Ambassador for India, and the University of Michigan conferred (in 2002) on her the Martin Luther King Professorship award in recognition of her contribution to arts, culture and society.
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