What surprises the inimitable Shabana Azmi is the fact that she has never worked with Raj Santoshi before. “We’ve both been working in the same film industry for decades. Why didn’t we ever come together before?”
She admits doing Lahore 1947 , an adaptation of Asghar Wajahat's play Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhya Woh Jamiya Nahin, has been a highly fulfilling experience for her. “I play this matriarch who just won’t let go of her ancestral home.Woh apna pushtaini makaan chhorna nahin chahti. It is a very tragic but brave character.”
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And Shabana had to cry a lot. “I’ve never played such a rondhu (cry baby) character in my life. To say she weeps copiously would be an understatement. I felt like Leela Chitnis and Nirupa Roy combined.”
That apartLahore 47 was a whole lot of fun for Shabana. “I had never worked with Sunny before. I worked with his father last year and now Sunny…Preity Zinta also was a first for me. We got along like a house on fire.”
But Shabana’s greatest takeaway from the experience. “I lost more than 15 kgs for Santoshi's film. Since I had to play this frail-looking woman I had to lose weight. I gladly did.”
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About Lahore 1947
The movie, also starring Preity Zinta and Sunny Deol's son Karan, is being bankrolled by Aamir Khan Productions. Set in the Independence era, it narrates the journey of a Muslim family that relocates from Lucknow to Lahore, where they receive a haveli previously occupied by a Hindu family.
It is scheduled to hit the screens on January 16, 2025.