Aparna Sen says she regrets turning down Shyam Benegal for Ankur: ‘We got an actress of Shabana Azmi’s calibre'

Ankur marked the directorial debut of Shyam Benegal as well as the acting debut of Shabana Azmi. She went on to win the National Award for her performance.

Shyam Benegal was a representative voice of the parallel cinema movement that ushered in new aesthetics in the 1970s. His first film, Ankur, received widespread acclaim and marked the acting debut of Shabana Azmi. But did you know that Shabana was not the first choice for the film? Shyam had first offered the film to acclaimed actor Aparna Sen, but she had turned it down. In a new conversation with Straight up with Shree, Aparna revealed why.

Aparna Sen shared why she said no to Ankur, which later went to Shabana Azmi.

What Aparna said

The veteran writer-director shared that her Hindi films were ‘thundering flops’ and she never made those films to become a mainstream heroine. She said, “I was asked and I did it. The money was tempting. I think I needed the money for something or the other and unfortunately the choices that I made were very wrong. The choices in Bengal were very well-made but for Hindi films it was not well made. The films which I didn't make which I feel that I should have done… one was Shyam Benegal's Ankur.”

She continued, “He sent me a synopsis and it was written that she [the protagonist] would be speaking in Hindi with a dialect with spatterings of Telugu. I thought this is so far away and I was going to be the household help. This is not something I felt confident about. This was Shyam's first film and he asked a lot of people and had been turned down being a newcomer. I told that I loved the synopsis and story, but I don't think I will do it. He said, ‘Okay, fine. You just sent me the synopsis [back].’ He must have felt bad, but if he had said, 'Why'?' then I would have confided that I feel under-confident and he would have reassured me. But thank goodness that did not happen because Shabana [Azmi] was so good! We got an actress of Shabana's calibre!"

About Ankur

In Ankur, Shabana played Laxmi, whose life turns upside down when she works as a househelp at a landlord's house to help sustain her own livelihood, along with her deaf-mute husband, Kishtayya. The young landlord begins an affair with Laxmi, creating a scandal in the conservative village. Shabana's performance earned massive acclaim and she went on to win the National Award for Best Actress.

Meanwhile, Shabana and Aparna also became friends in the succeeding years. They collaborated on films such as Sati (1989), directed by Sen, and the 2017 drama Sonata, in which they both starred.