Shabana Azmi: Radiance on and off screen
Truly seasoned Indian actress Shabana Azmi fits into every role with ease. Be it Ankur (1974), Dharavi (1992) or Fire (1996), her films remain imprinted in viewers' memory long after they leave the cinema hall.
All together she has acted in over 100 Hindi films, both in the mainstream as well as in parallel cinema. Her talented performances have won attention in the international arena, including at the Norwegian Film Institute, the Smithsonian Institution and the American Film Institute.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. At home she has received the coveted the National Film Award for Best Actress several times. In 1988, she bagged the Padma Shri. A decade later she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund.
Even today the 56-year-old actress has not hung up her gloves. Theatre enthusiasts in Dhaka still remember her stellar performance in the play Tumhari Amrita with Farookh Sheikh. On the anvil are films Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd and Umrao Jaan. This year she has been busy filming the lead role in Banglatown Banquet for the BBC where she is playing the role of a middle-aged Bangladeshi expat in London. She continues to be busy as a social activist and has actively fought AIDS and injustice in real life.
Shabana has an impressive lineage. The daughter of famous Urdu poet and lyricist, Kaifi Azmi and well known stage actress of her time, Shaukat Azmi, Shabana graduated from St Xavier's College, Bombay with a degree in psychology. She is also an alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India. She is married to the lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar.
Shabana has had the fortune to work with leading art film directors such as Shyam Benegal, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and others, as well as in some other Hindi films where she has enacted strong female characters, such as The Death Sentence: Mrityu Dand (1997) and Godmother (1999).
And Shabana has the last word: "The trick of enjoying life is to accept your age. Don't fight the years, grow with them."
Compiled by Cultural Correspondent