Not Just Bollywood | Shabana Azmi On Shekhar Kapur’s What’s Love Got To Do With It?: ‘No marriage is the future’

Actor Shabana Azmi in conversation with Firstpost’s Lachmi Deb Roy on the concept of assisted marriage shown in Shekhar Kapur’s film What’s Love Got To Do With It? and on working with Shekhar Kapur after Masoom. Shabana Azmi believes that nothing much has changed in Shekhar Kapur’s way of direction. Now is the best time for women actors where one gets to play layered roles and now is the time for colour blind casting too.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

On your transition to mother’s roles in What’s Love Got to Do With It? where you are planning to get your daughter married off…

It is only natural and when you embrace age gracefully and then play according to that, then it is heartwarming. And I would say it’s a fortunate time for actors of all age groups. Screen space is opening up particularly to women of all ages which was unimaginable ten years back.

But now look at the diversity of roles that I am playing. I never imagined in my life that I would be playing Admiral Margaret Paragonsky in Halo, working with Emma Thompson and working with Karan Johar. How much more diverse can my roles get. In fact, it is probably more diverse than what I was doing in my earlier days.

On working with Shekhar Kapur again after Masoom…

 I don’t think the equation changed when I compare my work with Shekhar in Masoom days to now. Although Shekhar and I weren’t really in touch with each other, it was very heart-warming to come back to this film because Shekhar has always been very gentle. He loves giving space to actors and he retained that. And somehow we immediately connected in a way where we were on the same side. He doesn’t tell the actors what to do. But he gives you the space to give your best.

I don’t understand why I am always made a Pakistani mother. I have worked in three to four series in international cinema where I play the role of a Pakistani mother. In London, they behave as if there are only Pakistani mothers and no Indian mothers. When I worked with Shirley MacLaine in Madame Sousatzka, I was the only Asian on the sets. That time I felt a little alien because everything else was just so white and British. Today it is becoming so international that you cannot even differentiate. It has become so diverse the cast, that on the same set you have Chinese, Polish, Asian and African. And more females. Earlier what was happening was that the technicians were international. Now it’s time for colour blind casting. And it’s a beautiful change.

On women’s roles changing…

Earlier we had these young girls in their thirties who were asked to put white colour on their hair and were made to look young. Women’s roles are becoming layered now. It’s no more like how Nirupa Roy played the role of a mother. I remember someone telling me as a joke that she (Nirupa Roy) is such a careless mother. If she had a hundred children in the morning, by evening she would have lost all of them.

On assisted marriage which is shown in your film What’s Love Got To Do With It?

The point about arranged marriages is that I come from a very progressive family. I have realised over a period of time that assisted marriages, which is the new term used in the film, works very well. If you look at it carefully, assisted marriage is the same thing as tinder. Assisted marriages just help you. More and more selecting their own partners with the help of elders.

On marriages now getting outdated…

Particularly older girls are resisting the idea of marriages. There is definitely a shift in the man woman relationship. The women are much more confident. And she knows what her rights are and the males are yet to change.

But you have a happy married life with Javed Akhtar?

My life with Javed is such that we come from similar backgrounds that many have to say that we should have had an arranged marriage (laughs). But I still feel ‘No marriage’ is the future. I feel women should live together and men should just visit. It is so much nicer to live with your own gang of girlfriends.

Apart from the fact that Shekhar Kapur was directing it, what was the fascinating part of the script of What’s Love Got To Do With It? that made you agree to it?

 The whole package deal was so lovely that it had Shekhar Kapur, Emma Thopson, Lily James, Shazad Latif, Jeff Mirza. I am a huge fan of Emma and the fact that Emma turned out to be a lovely person along with being a lovely actor was amazing. But what attracted me to the project was that in today’s world when everything is so divisive, along comes a film that celebrates love and basically says that we are not going to be judgmental about each other’s cultures. Celebrating differences is what the film talks about and I feel that is very important.

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