Shabana Azmi plays a pivotal role in Karan Johar’s recently released Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. She recently mentioned in a podcast that she almost gave up acting. The talented actress revealed that she felt humiliated when she was unable to perform a dance number and the choreographer humiliated her in front of the set’s junior artists. She was embarrassed and left the sets in tears.
Shabana Azmi experienced this embarrassment on the set of the 1977 film Parvarish. When asked about the incident, she revealed that she has two left feet and could not dance to save her life. As a result, she asked the choreographer, Kamal Master, to give her rehearsals. The choreographer, on the other hand, was certain that she didn’t need rehearsals because all she had to do was clap. Shabana Azmi revealed,”It was so frightening because I was with Neetu Singh. Even before I could figure out where I have to put my right foot, and left foot, Neetu would have done two rehearsals and sat over there.”
She recalled her nervousness during the shoot, saying, “I told Kamal Ji it was very complicated and can we change it a little bit. There were a lot of junior artists on the sets. He said ‘Okay, lights off. Now Shabana Ji is now going to teach Kamal dance master what steps to do’. It was so humiliating and bad that I just ran off the set. I was in these ghastly clothes. I went to find my car was not there. In those clothes I started walking barefoot to my house in Juhu, crying away and saying ‘I am not going to work in any film anymore. I just don’t want this humiliation.”
However, Manmohan Desai, the director of Parvarish, later came over and hugged her while apologising. Other producers also assisted her in calming down. Finally, the actress stated, “Sulakshana Pandit told me that I’m much more needed in the film than the choreographer as I was the leading lady. Her words cheered me up.”
Among those who appeared in Parvarish were Amitabh Bachchan, Neetu Singh and Vinod Khanna.