'ACTING NOT ABOUT IMITATION BUT JOURNEYING INWARDS'

For over 50 years, Shabana Azmi has enthralled audiences with her impactful and versatile performances. In an exclusive conversation with CE, the actress speaks about her journey and perspective on life

- TIKA KRISHNA

Was the city where my parents met and fell in love with each other, the city where I was born, and the city where I did my first film, Ankur. I have a deep attachment to Hyderabad.

You've had a very cultured upbringing; your father Kaifi Azmi was a great poet and your mother Shaukat Kaifi was a theatre artiste. So, when did you become interested in the world of films? Right from the beginning. I was only three years old when I started acting in school and then acted all through school and college. In fact, in St Xavier's College (Mumbai), Farooq Shaikh and I started the Hindi Natya Manch. Inevitably, we'd win all the awards. So, acting was only natural.

I remember the kind of support I got from my father. I told him I wanted to seriously start acting and asked him, 'Will you support me?' He said, 'Beta, I will support you in anything you want to do. If you tell me you want to be a mochi, I will support that as well, provided you make every attempt to be the best mochi in the business!'

(laughs) Kitni badi baat hai for a father to say that... And so then after that, I joined the Film and Television Institute of India and got a gold medal for the best student in acting. Everything just flowed after that.