Each year, Shabana Azmi looks forward to Raksha Bandhan like a dutiful sister.
Says Shabana,“Raksha Bandhan is the tyohaar my brother Baba and I are most sentimental about .The thread I tie to him on rakhi remains on his wrist till the next year when I tie a fresh one . He allows only his daughter Meghna to tie it, if I’m not in town.”
Tinseltown is notorious for making bhai-bahen out of all and sundry .
Not Baba. Says Shabana, “He has never allowed anyone else to become his ‘rakhi sister’. Ours has been a very close bond and I love him deeply. He is the son I never had .”
Shabana not only dotes on Baba as a sister but also admires his cinematographic skills dearly. “As a Director Of Photography he values actors so much that if he feels an actor has given an extremely emotional shot but his frame or his lighting is left wanting a little he will sacrifice it for the sake of the actor .That’s an amazing quality in a cinematographer!”
Illustrating Baba’s wacky sense of humour Shabana says, “Actors are vain creatures and most have a preference for a certain angle and a certain profiles.Baba doesn’t try to convince them otherwise . ‘Bhai, they’ve spent so many hours studying their faces that it’s simpler to accept it and move on,’ he says with a twinkle in his eye .”
Shabana admits Baba films her beautifully but there is someone who does it better. “Baba photographs me very flatteringly , second only to Pravin Bhatt who shot me film like Arth, Kamala and Bhavna.”