Queen of parallel cinema Shabana Azmi turns 73; know some amazing facts about the legend

Shabana Azmi turns 73 today. The queen of parallel cinema had only one competition during her heydays and that was from Smita Patil. However, the early death of the Namak Halaal actor made Shabana the undisputed czarina of the parallel cinema and to date, no one has come closer to even claiming her position.

Born to a famous poet, married to a writer and famous lyricist

Intellectual class runs in the genes and life of Shabana as she was born to the famous poet Kaifi Azmi who has given some famous songs to Bollywood. Importantly, she was also actively involved in several literary activities earlier and holds an honorary Doctorate from the University of Yorkshire.

So it is not surprising that despite being an actress she is a highly educated woman who completed her degree in Psychology before venturing into movies. Now she is married to Javed Akhtar who is also a famous writer and lyricist in Bollywood and these associations have also made a big impact on the movie choices and life of Shabana Azmi.

One of the most talented Bollywood actresses of all time

She has won the National Award for her acting five times and received the Film Fare Award 4 times which is just an example of her talent. Be it Ardha Satya or Ankur or Fakira or Amar, Akbar, Anthony Shabana was equally impressive in both parallel and commercial cinema. She has received high-level national awards like Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri and was chosen as the “women in cinema” at the 30th International Film Festival.

The legendary actress who is called Coco at home returned to the big screen recently with Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani after a huge gap and just nailed her romantic scenes with Dharmendra with so much ease. Apart from acting Shabana Azmi loves to read, and listen to music as she believes such activities help her to relax and live a better life.