Shabana Azmi is celebrating her 72nd birthday today. (Photo: Shabana Azmi/Instagram)Actor-director Farhan Akhtar took to his Instagram handle and wished his step-mother, actor Shabana Azmi, on the occasion of her 72nd birthday. The actor shared a throwback picture of the two as they danced at his wedding to Shibani Dandekar earlier this year.
He also penned a sweet note along with the picture and wrote, “Happy Birthday @azmishabana8. Been a fan of your dancing ever since I saw Parvarish and cherish this moment we finally danced together.” (Sic)
Bollywood celebrities like Shilpa Shetty, Priyanka Chopra and Farah Khan among others also took to their Instagram and wished the veteran actor. Shilpa wrote, “Wishing you all the love, great health, peace and happiness that the universe has to offer my dearest ‘padosan’.” Choreographer Farah Khan wrote, “Happy birthday @azmishabana8 my next item girl.”
Shabana and Javed Akhtar got married in 1984. Farhan and his sister Zoya are Javed’s children from his first marriage with scriptwriter Honey Irani. Shabana has often spoken about her relationship with Farhan and Zoya and how it evolved over the years. In a conversation with Twinkle Khanna, Shabana had said, “I didn’t push, and I didn’t try desperately to be liked by them, I gave them a lot of time. Of course, the fact that Honey was really generous about it, that helped. And the fact is that till they found a comfort level with me, I was there, but I was never pushing.”
In response to Twinkle’s query if it was ‘difficult at that time’, Shabana had said, “He was a married man, he had children, it was really tough. And that’s why I feel that people shouldn’t speculate. It’s difficult enough for the people involved and then just for gossip’s sake. And obviously, people are going to say, ‘You call yourself a feminist and then how have you got yourself in this situation?’”
On the work front, Farhan will direct the movie Jee Lee Zara, featuring Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt and Priyanka Chopra. Zoya has written the film and it is expected to go on floors in 2023.