Shabana Azmi, a name, known to all, is one of the talented actresses of the Indian film industry. She can be regarded as one of the leading ladies of parallel or art films. Shabana was born on 18th September in the year 1950, she is the daughter of Kaifi Azmi who was famous Urdu poet and writer and noted stage actress Shaukat Azmi. Shabana is both an Indian actress and a social activist, who has acted in different genres of films. Most of her performances are appreciated and she has been felicitated with numerous awards. Having graduated in Psychology from St’ Xavier’s College, she joined an acting course at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, she even topped her batch in 1972. Shabana is one the few actresses to have won a National Film Award for best actress for the debut film. Shabana’s debut film was Shyam Benegal’s ‘Ankur’, which was released in 1972.
Shabana has received National Film Award for three consecutive awards, which is an achievement in itself. The films for which she won are ‘Arth’, ‘Khandhar’ and ‘Paar’. She has won five National Film Awards in the best actress category. ‘Godmother’ is the last one till now in her list of five. Her other memorable performances include in the movies like Shyam Benegal’s ‘Nishant’, ‘Junoon’ , ‘Susman’ , ‘Antarnaad’, Satyajit Ray’s ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’ , ‘Genesis’ , ‘Ek Din Achanak’ directed by Mrinal Sen, ‘Disha’ and ‘Sparsh’ by Sai Paranjpye , Aparna Sen’s ‘Sati’ , ‘Picnic’ ,Gautam Ghose’s ‘Paar’ , ‘Madame Sousatzka’ of John Schlesinger, Roland Joffe’s ‘City of Joy’ and Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Arth’. Shabana has also appeared in many commercial films and is a active social activist.