Veteran actress Shabana Azmi will soon be turning 76 on the 18th of September.
The actress celebrated the occasion a day prior to her actual birthday, surrounded by friends and colleagues from the film industry. Ahead of her special day, the actress received an unusual and expressive birthday tribute from actress Vidya Balan and producer husband Siddharth Roy Kapur, which left her smiling.
Shabana took to her social media account to share a glimpse of the special birthday gesture, which was a cake featuring an artistic representation of her alongside the words “Batwarapan! A talent that is borderless! EST. 1950 STILL GOING STRONG/EST.”
Thanking Vidya and Siddharth for the thoughtful gesture, Shabana
wrote: “Thank you so much #Siddharth Roy Kapur and #Vidya Balan for this innovative message. It brought a big smile to my face.”
The actress also shared a glimpse of her birthday celebrations, giving fans a peek into the intimate gathering attended by many of her industry friends.
In another post, Shabana shared a group picture featuring her actress friends and simply captioned it, “Pretty women.”
The celebrations saw many familiar faces from the film fraternity come together, including Divya Dutta, Tanvi Azmi, Dia Mirza, Richa Chadha, Vidya Balan and Shahana Goswami, among others. The gathering was seen turning into a lively celebration as the veteran actress marked the milestone with friends.
Filmmaker-producer Boney Kapoor was also among those who attended the celebrations. In a glimpse from the gathering, he and Shabana were seen enjoying pani puri together.
Shabana was also seen spending time with her childhood friends, with the group joining in for a rendition of the iconic song ‘Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin Todenge’ from the 1975 cult classic Sholay.
For the uninitiated, born on September 18, 1950, Shabana Azmi is the daughter of celebrated poet and lyricist Kaifi Azmi and theatre actress Shaukat Kaifi.
She made her film debut with Shyam Benegal’s ‘Ankur’ in 1974. The film became a landmark in her career.
Over the decades, Azmi established herself as one of Indian cinema’s most acclaimed performers, balancing parallel cinema alongside mainstream films. Her notable works include ‘Nishant’, ‘Junoon’, ‘Arth’, ‘Khandhar’, ‘Paar’, ‘Mandi’, ‘Masoom’, ‘Shatranj Ke Khilari’, ‘Sparsh’, ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’, ‘Fakira’, ‘Godmother’ and ‘Fire’, among several others.
