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Actor Shabana Azmi celebrates her 65th birthday

by IBNS 17 Sep 2015, 08:31 pm

Mumbai, Sept 18 (IBNS) Shabana Azmi, one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema, celebrates her 65th birthday on Friday.

Azmi, the daughter of Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi and noted thespian Shaukat Kaifi, was born in 1950 in Hyderabad (now Telengana).

An alumna of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Azmi’s first feature release was the critically acclaimed neo-realistic movie Ankur.

Having made a mark with her first release, she appeared in a number of classics, collaborating with some of the biggest names in world cinema.

About a 100 movies and four decades later, Azmi has a total of five National Film Awards for Best Actress, among several others.

She was also nominated 11 times for the Filmfare Awards, winning it thrice and received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Azmi is also a Padma awardee. The Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri in 1988. Twenty-four years later, in 2012, she received the Padma Bhushan award.

Apart from acting, Azmi has garnered a reputation of being a peacekeeper. For her service, she won the Gandhi International Peace Prize in 2006.

Shabana is the step mother of her husband, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar’s children, Farhan and Zoya and the aunt of actress Tabu.