Shabana Azmi is the first Indian actor of her generation to have an extensive exposure via international projects. Genesis, Madame Souzatska, La Nuit Bengali in the eighties. City of Joy, Immaculate Conception, In Custody, Fire and Side Streets in the nineties. Water Borne, Loins of Punjab and It is a Wonderful Afterlife in 2000 and A Decent Arrangement, Midnights Children, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, The Wishing Tree and The Black Prince post 2010. Add to this, tele series Bangla Town Banquet, Next of Kin, The Good Karma Tree and now Steven Spielberg produced Halo. I catch up with the actor in London on her way to the premier of the web series to find out how she feels.
From art cinema to $200 million budget project, it has been a long journey?
The journey has been long and meaningful, budget is just a number, what is important is how you feel.
So how did the opportunity come your way?
It was quite surprising actually because I didn’t have to go through an audition. The casting directors saw a couple of my films and suggested my name. My agent Geoff Stanton was in talks with the producers without letting me know. It was only after I got confirmed that I did a facetime call with the director Otto Bathurst whose work I had loved in Black Mirror and Peaky Blinders.
To be continued