Shabana Azmi’s wondrous experience entering the world of ‘Halo’

Shabana Azmi is just about to make a presentation at the University of Southampton, and it’s a windy day as she gets out of her car and makes her way into the auditorium, where in a few minutes, hundreds of students will assemble to listen to her. “Sorry, it’s been a bit of a hectic day,” she apologises, for the disturbance on our Zoom call from her iPhone, as she recalls how she was cast in possibly one of the most challenging — and unlikely — roles in her decorated career thus far. Apart from Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, she is also busy working on British rom-com What’s Love Got to Do With It?, directed by Shekhar Kapur, in which Shabana shares screen space with Lily James and Emma Thompson. This is something that I learned to do by the process of osmosis, from my mother; she even used to dress up like her theatrical characters a lot — and that would dictate her walk and stuff like that.” “Obviously, it’s always very challenging to get into a genre that you don’t know at all; it also requires, within yourself, a willing suspension of disbelief to enter an area that, even as a child or teenager, I wasn’t into. Since we are constantly talking about a more inclusive society and a more inclusive world, then film is as good a place to try and do that as anywhere else Shabana’s role of Margaret Parangosky — a no-nonsense, cold and calculating woman — involves a lot of scenes with co-star Natascha McElhone; a collaboration she enjoyed.