Shabana Azmi says her first screen test was a ‘disaster’: ‘I was so awful, couldn’t even open my mouth’

“First time I did a screen test, it was a disaster because they had put so much makeup on me that I could not even open my mouth. There was so much makeup. I was so awful that I said that 100 percent they are going to throw me out because this is not going to work at all. But, I realised that it was because there was so much pancake on my face and that’s not how it should be,” Shabana said.

But as destiny would have it, Shabana made her debut in Shyam Benegal’s Ankur in 1974 and won a National Award for Best Actress. She is thankful that her character of Lakshmi was presented in a real way. “I was really grateful to Shyam that we had no makeup at all, no base at all, so you look so much like you do in real life. I think that made it easy,” she said.

For Shabana, who has given films such as Amar Akbar Anthony, Arth, Paar and Godmother, amongst others, facing the camera in the mainstream cinema always posed a challenge. “When I was doing mainstream cinema, I struggled to face the camera. You won’t believe it but there was a time when my ambition was to look like Sulakshana Pandit and over all these ghastly wigs and makeup on my face, I tried very hard to fit it and the more I tried to fit in, the worse I looked,” said the actor.

Over the years, Shabana established her identity as a relatable artist and someone whose characters also appeared to be much like the audience. She credits a part of it to her mother Shaukat Kaifi. “The notion of what film stars should look like was very far removed from what I saw myself as and I must say that in a lot of ways my mother encouraged me. She said that ‘This is nonsense! If you start looking like everybody else then it doesn’t make any sense. You have to retain who you are.’ And I think all that also really helped,” said Shabana.

Shabana’s latest release is Karan Johar’s directorial Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. The film, which was released on July 28, also stars Dharmendra and Jaya Bachchan. The film’s leading star cast includes Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh.