Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. She was one of the leading faces of India’s “parallel cinema” movement of the 1970s and 1980s and has won the National Film Award for Best Actress five times, more than any other actress. Her best-known films include Ankur, Arth, Masoom, Mandi and Fire. She is also a social activist and a former member of the Rajya Sabha, and she is married to the poet and screenwriter Javed Akhtar.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Shabana Kaifi Azmi |
| Born | 18 September 1950, Hyderabad, India |
| Age | 76 |
| Parents | Kaifi Azmi, Shaukat Azmi |
| Education | St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai; Film and Television Institute of India, Pune |
| Occupation | Actress, activist |
| Years active | 1974–present |
| Spouse | Javed Akhtar (m. 1984) |
| Honours | Padma Shri (1988), Padma Bhushan (2012), five National Film Awards |
| Known for | Ankur, Arth, Masoom, Fire, Godmother |
Early Life
Shabana was born in Hyderabad to the Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi and the stage actress Shaukat Azmi, both members of the Communist Party of India and the Indian People’s Theatre Association. She grew up in Mumbai in a home full of writers and artists. She studied psychology at St. Xavier’s College and then trained in acting at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, topping her class in 1972.
Career
Her first release, Shyam Benegal’s Ankur (1974), in which she played a servant woman in rural Andhra Pradesh, won her the National Film Award for Best Actress. She became central to the new realistic cinema, working with Benegal in Nishant, Junoon and Mandi, with Satyajit Ray in Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), and in Sparsh (1980). She won three National Awards in a row for Arth (1982), Khandhar (1984) and Paar (1984). She also starred in Shekhar Kapur‘s much-loved Masoom (1983) and in mainstream hits such as Amar Akbar Anthony (1977).
Azmi appeared in the foreign films Madame Sousatzka (1988) and City of Joy (1992). In Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996) she played a lonely housewife who falls in love with her sister-in-law; the film caused protests in India and won her awards abroad. She won her fifth National Award for Godmother (1999) and played a witch in Vishal Bhardwaj’s children’s film Makdee (2002).
Azmi has continued to act in films and on stage. Her later roles include the mother of the air hostess Neerja Bhanot in Neerja (2016), the American series Halo (2022), and the grandmother in Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023), with Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt and Dharmendra, which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also starred in the series Dabba Cartel (2025).
Activism and Politics
Azmi has campaigned for slum dwellers’ housing rights in Mumbai, for communal harmony and for people living with HIV/AIDS, and she once went on hunger strike in support of evicted slum residents. She was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha from 1997 to 2003 and has been a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. She runs the Mijwan Welfare Society, founded by her father, which educates and trains girls in his home village in Uttar Pradesh.
Personal Life
Azmi married Javed Akhtar in December 1984. She is stepmother to his children, the filmmakers Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. Her brother, Baba Azmi, is a cinematographer.
Awards and Honours
Selected Filmography
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Shabana Azmi born?
Shabana Azmi was born on 18 September 1950 in Hyderabad, India and is 76 years old.
What is Shabana Azmi known for?
Known for: Ankur, Arth, Masoom, Fire, Godmother.
What honours has Shabana Azmi received?
Padma Shri (1988), Padma Bhushan (2012), five National Film Awards.
Featured image: Shabana Azmi, photographed when she received an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University, Canada, October 2009. Photo by Simon Fraser University, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
