Shabana Azmi: It is therapeutic to work. We are tested five times a week

The actor, who has been shooting since September in India, London and now in Budapest talks about shooting experience, working with Shekhar Kapur and on Steven Spielberg’s futuristic sci-fi adventure

A year ago, Shabana Azmi had just returned from Budapest, Hungaray after shooting for Steven Spielberg’s futuristic sci-fi adventure television series Halo and was in quarantine. Today, she is busy wrapping up her portions in the European city and is expected to return to India in early April.

Thoroughly enjoying the hectic work schedule, Shabana Azmi reveals, it didn’t take a lot of convincing to return to the sets post the lockdown. (Photo by Waseem Gashroo/Hindustan Times)

The 70-year-old actor has been shooting almost non-stop since the past few months, including Nikkhil Advani’s web series, Moghuls in India, Shekhar Kapur’s rom-com, What’s Love Got To Do With It in London and later Halo. Thoroughly enjoying the hectic work schedule, she reveals, it didn’t take a lot of convincing to return to the sets post the lockdown. “I resumed work in Mumbai as early as September 2020 for Nikkhil’s web series and then followed it up with shoot in Budapest followed by London. We are tested five times a week. It is therapeutic to work and as long as one adheres by the Covid protocol, it is all fine. When I am not on set, I am reading, cooking often with disastrous results, going for walks, listening to music, participating in seminars via video and really enjoying being on my own,” she reveals.

She reunited with her Masoom (1983) director Shekhar Kapur and admits, it didn’t feel like so many years had passed at all. “Shekhar loves his actors and we connected quickly. We shot long hours, it was freezing cold but all the warmth on the sets between the actors made up for it. We had a terrific crew,” she says.

Azmi had tweeted that she had a wonderful time working with Hollywood actor Emma Thompson who “was wonderful and a generous co-star”. She adds, “She is lovely, funny and very warm. We got along from the minute we met. I’ve been her admirer for many years now and our social concerns are similar. Emma is a wonderful actress, but I’ll let you in on a secret… she can’t play dumb charades to save her life (laughs)!”

In an interview to HT, Javed Akhtar (husband, writer, poet) spoke about the pleasant stay the couple had in their Khandala home together for over three months last year during the lockdown. Talking about her experience, Azmi shares, “It was lovely actually. We had a kind of community living. My brother has a house there and my friend Parna lives at walking distance, Farhan and Zoya came in every other weekend. We were living in a bubble of our own. Both Javed and I were glad to discover that we enjoy each other’s company a lot! The crisis really became an opportunity for us. Which is not to say that the plight of the migrant workers, the rise of domestic violence, the sharpness of the divide between the haves and the havenots were not of concern to us. We did whatever we could both personally and through Mijwan Welfare Society,” she signs off.