Shabana Azmi: “I think that Vidya is a very fine actor”

The critically acclaimed Shabana Azmi has given equally great performances in cinema and theatre during the course of her career. But she feels that this is not the case with younger female actors of today.

Azmi started of her journey into the theatre world at a young age when her mother, Shaukat Azmi would take her to her rehearsals.  “I was four months old when my mother used to strap me on my back and take me for rehearsals. My training started at that time. That is the smell of theatre in my nostrils, so to speak,” said the actress to Hindustan Times.

Azmi also shares how for actors it would be the ideal situation to be able to work in both cinema and theatre. “For an actor, the ideal is to be able to work in both theatre and cinema. That’s why actors such as Kevin Spacey do theatre, even if they get one-hundreth of the kind of money they get in cinema,” said Azmi.

However Azmi thinks that there’s not enough young female actors covering the two mediums, “Not many of them are doing it (theatre).” Asked who she thinks would be good at theatre, Azmi said “Vidya Balan, for instance, is going to be terrific. Vidya has a beautiful voice. So, if she decides to do stage, she’ll do wonders with it.”

But that’s not all she thinks that Balan has what it takes to win five National Awards like her, “I think that Vidya is a very fine actor.”

For the ‘Lahoo Ke Do Rang’ (1979) actor, there are a few others who qualify in this list, “I think there are many because ultimately it depends on the opportunity you get. I think that Vidya Balan is a very fine actor, and so is Tabu, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka (Chopra) and Konkana Sen Sharma. There is a whole lot of them who are doing really good work.”