Why aren't Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Javed Akhtar not wearing masks in this picture? Shabana Azmi explains

Shabana Azmi explained why Javed Akhtar, Amitabh Bachchan, his wife Jaya, and others weren't wearing masks in a picture she posted on Instagram earlier this week.

After many pointed out the lack of safety precautions in a recent social media picture posted by actor Shabana Azmi, she offered a clarification. On Wednesday, she posted a picture that featured her husband Javed Akhtar, Amitabh Bachchan, his wife Jaya, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, and producer Romesh Sharma.

Shabana Azmi posted this picture on Instagram earlier this week.

She wrote in the caption, "At #Romesh Sharma's 70th birthday party." One person commented that no one in the picture was wearing masks. "Happy Birthday Romesh...All you ppl...what about the MASKS?" they asked. Shabana replied, "Sorry I should have said it is a throwback picture."

The picture is from 2017. At the time, Shabana had shared it on Twitter, with the caption, "At #Romesh Sharmas 70th birthday celebrations yesterday. Elegant understated private.. a good time was had by all."

Covid-19 cases have been rising in the state of Maharashtra in recent days, prompting the government to impose new restrictions, such as night curfews and the requirement of negative test reports to enter certain public places. The box office fortunes of a host of films, released to much fanfare after nearly a year of near-silence at the theatres, have also been impacted.

Amitabh and his son, Abhishek Bachchan, Abhishek's wife Aishwarya, and their daughter Aaradhya, had all tested positive for the coronavirus last year. Each of them spent time in a hospital, with Abhishek being the last to recover.

Shabana has been shooting across the world since late last year. In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, she spoke about the precautions that are being taken on the sets of her projects, one of which is the high-profile Halo series executive produced by Steven Spielberg. “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," she said.