Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
That Shabana Azmi is a special actor, and that her film Arth, which Mahesh Bhatt helmed in 1982, is landmark movie in modern Hindi cinema, is not news. However, there were a few trivia which the filmmaker recently revealed when he was asked to speak a little about the actor and their classic collaboration.
Speaking to Pinkvilla, Bhatt revealed that Azmi did not charge him anything for Arth, and worked on it for free, whilst taking care of her own costume.
“Arth couldn’t have been made without the unique person who I had the privilege of encountering in the journey of my life. She gave it her all and did not charge a penny. Shabana just said this – ‘make the film.’ Not only did she not charge any money, she brought clothes from her own home, not only for herself, but she had gone out of her way and brought clothes for Smita Patil on several occasions, who was considered her arch rival at the time,” an emotional Mahesh Bhatt confessed.
The director then went on to thank Shabana Azmi profusely for ‘rewriting his career’ with the movie, which also starred Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Smita Patil in pivotal roles.
Speaking about an emotionally-charged moment in Arth, Mahesh Bhatt stated, “There was a scene where the character of Pooja Malhotra, which Shabana played, finds out that her husband has a girlfriend and has now moved in with her. She just immersed herself in it, which I have never seen an actor do. She became so vulnerable. After pleading with her husband for a new beginning, Pooja is turned down. We hold the camera on Kulbhushan Kharbanda, hold it for quite a while. And then I called cut; I saw Shabana crumbling to the ground, and falling to pieces. The sight was heartbreaking. She had touched something in her which I had never seen an actor do.”
“Arth rewrote the story of my life. I rose like a phoenix from the ashes, but the wings were not mine, they were Shabana’s,” Bhatt said in his parting note for the actor, as a visibly moved Azmi could only manage to say, “Only Mahesh can speak like this.”
Arth is said to be based on Mahesh Bhatt’s extramarital affair with the late Parveen Babi. The movie also starred Rohini Hattangadi and Raj Kiran in supporting roles.
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
