Shabana Azmi and her soul mate Javed Akhtar never knew their impromptu jig at her 75th birthday party would create such a stir.
The dance has gone viral.
Speaking from the US where she is currently attending a film festival showcasing her film Bun Tikki and her brother Baba Azmi’s directorial Safia Safdar, Shabana Azmi said, “Here in the US they’re only asking me about the dance, as if I haven’t done anything else in my life!”
Shabana reached the US for the closing screening of her starrer Bun Tikki at Chicago South Asian Film Festival on 21 September and also for her brother Baba’s new film Safia Safdar which was screened just before Bun Tikki. At the Chicago South Asian Film Festival Shabana introduced the young leading lady Aditi Subedi of Safia Safdar who is from Shabana’s native village Mijwan in Uttar Pradesh.
Says Shabana proudly, “Aditi Subedi has already become a role model for our school girls in Mijwan. She is quite the star at the Festival here! My Bun Tikki was also very well received. People were so busy congratulating me for the dance with Javed on my birthday that it drowned all other voices! Javed, back home in the US, also said he was at a mushaira where he was mobbed for his dance not his poetry!!”
Shabana can’t get over the irony of her being praised for her dancing. “Throughout my career I was famous for my two left foot. Once the choreographer Kamal Master reprimanded me so sternly for my dancing that I nearly quit the film industry.”
