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Journalism of Courage
It8217;s a good story to tell future generations. Just as All India Radio rejected Amitabh Bachchan8217;s voice, Shabana Azmi was turned down by three film makers before she got her first break.
First she lost out on the role of Nutan8217;s co-fairy in Shahid Latif8217;s Sone Ki Chidiya. All of two, Shabana was quot;too youngquot;, Latif felt. When she was 12, K Abbas refused to cast her for Hamara Ghar. quot;I went there, all dolled up in heels and my tightish salwar kurta. And he said I was too old for the role,quot; laughs Shabana. quot;This time I was really heart-broken.quot; Little did Abaas know that the girl he dismissed so easily would create magic on screen with his Faasla.
She was rejected yet again, while in college, when Ismail Merchant was scouting for girls for a beauty contest sequence in Guru. quot;Both me and my friend packaged ourselves well but got eliminated in the very first round,quot; she reminisces.
But Shabana8217;s moment of triumph came when Abbas signed her Faasla, while she was still a student at the FTII. Not that heremembered the 12-year-old he had sent away.
In fact, for an actress who was shown the door thrice, it was only befitting that Shabana got her first three films almost simultaneously. She signed Faasla first, but shot for Kantilal Rathod8217;s Parinay before the former project took off 8212; she8217;d signed both films while she was still studying at the FTII. And finally it was Shyam Benegal8217;s Ankur that hit the screen ahead of these two 8212; moreover, it was a major success.
When Benegal met her for the first time, he narrated the stories of both Ankur and Nishant. quot;He told me, you are in both the films8217;. I went back and told my mother that there is this fraud film-maker who has offered me two films,quot; she remembers. But 15 days later, she was actually shooting for Ankur.
And when Govind Nihalani spotted her at Benegal8217;s office 8212; clad in jeans and a T-shirt 8212; he wrote to Girish Karnad saying quot;Benegal has chosen a rat for his filmquot;. But three days into the first schedule and Nihalani regretted his uncomplimentarynote 8212; and gracefully took his words back with, quot;I think you are a very good actressquot;.
A few days later Shabana wrote to her mother, describing Ankur as a special quot;Satyajit Ray kind of filmquot;. It was, for this contemporary classic ended up winning a National award, and, even made a special entry to the Berlin Film Festival.
