Top 60 Shabana Azmi Quotes

Unfortunately, the Hindi film industry is a sitting duck; it is easy to hurl malevolent accusations. It is a systematic campaign to divert attention from real issues, failing economy, China border tensions, spiraling Covid cases, and farmers’ agitation by putting the spotlight on the supposed ills of the film industry.

It’s only in India that you can have six couples going together on a honeymoon. I don’t think it happens anywhere else in the world.

We need role models in our society that the youth can look up to because that space is shrinking.

If you only play the glamour doll and you want to cling on to the image, then it will be difficult. But if you don’t, you will prolong your career.

I’m singularly lucky to have worked with directors who dared me to take risks and be different and I am thankful to the Indian film industry for giving me my primary identity.

I’ve embraced life at all stages.

‘Aurat’ is an iconic poem which is relevant 70 years later and informs me in the work I do with women.

We never had money but it was never a problem. The spirit of comradeship, the commitment to gender equality, social justice and a celebration of pluralism and India’s composite culture provided the glue that kept us joyous and closely bonded.

Valentine’s day has been reduced to a marketing gimmick. Buying diamonds for your beloved has no appeal for me.

In a patriarchal society like ours, women have to fight hard for a seat at the table. Boys are privileged over girls from birth. Equal opportunity and access for both girls and boys must become the norm.

Fear is a phenomena that each one of us faces, in different ways.

Because I was involved in so many other areas of life and so many productive activities, I wasn’t judged for not being a mother. There was no pressure on me for not having children.

For me, be it ‘Arth’ or ‘Libaas’ or ‘Masoom,’ there has always been space to break stereotypes or social constructs and perform beyond the norm. It happened all through my career and I am happy it did.

I think men and women are different – I am not saying better or worse, just different.

What I value is that I have been able to do some modest work to help women rise to the level of their potential.

Acting in itself is changing. This change is because of the advent of the casting director. Earlier, there would be stock characters, who would be seen in every film. Now, casting directors are bringing fresh faces.

I can’t describe fear as well as I can describe courage. Courage is when you overcome fear.

My being Muslim is only one part of my identity. But particularly in India and the world over, a concerted effort is being made to diminish all other aspects of identity and only take your religious identity as who you are.

It’s interesting to see how ‘Arth’ still touches a chord in people’s hearts all these years later. Men were very hostile when the film was shown in 1984. They were angry and said things like I’m teaching women wrong things by saying they have the choice to walk out of their husband’s home if they are cheated upon.

I like having family and friends around me. Our house is always overflowing with guests.

When I entered the industry in the early 1970s, I was a gold medalist from the film institute, Pune. That was when graduates from the film institute were very quickly absorbed by the mainstream commercial industry.

Until the age of 19, I lived in the Communist Party commune where eight families lived in 180 to 200 square feet of space. In that world, social justice was a given. We grew up valuing that.

I am on a strict diet now and medication. It’s torture, I simply cannot eat every two hours, which is the way all nutrition plans work these days. I lose weight but the minute I start eating again, I rapidly put it back.

Why is a woman always judged only on the basis of her relationship with her family members and the time she gives them, and not on the basis of her success at work?

There was a film which I did many, many, many years ago which took 14 years to make. Fourteen years. It was a film called ‘Oonch Neech Beech’ and in one shot, Shashi Kapoor goes out for a jog and when he reaches, he is 40 kilos heavier!

I look back on my career with some sort of satisfaction.

Terrorism should be struck down with an iron hand.

I am an optimist and my father was an optimist.

It seems kosher and OK to treat women as objects because the business of cinema is about images and when you have fragmented images of a woman’s bosom and her swiveling hip and her twisting navel, it robs the woman of all autonomy and subjects her to the male gaze.

I don’t see the point of having a favorite sari or a favorite outfit if I know that I won’t repeat it. I’m glad Kate Middleton has been repeating her outfits and talking about sustainable fashion. Celebrities must set an example and repeat their clothes.

Not belonging to any political party actually helps me because I value my independent voice above everything else, I treasure it.

In 1986, I had gone on a hunger strike with Anand Patwardhan rooting for an alternative land for slum dwellers. My mother got very nervous and told my father to tell me that, ‘what am I doing?’ He sent me a telegram that read: ‘Best of luck, comrade!’

I’m not saying a housewife is in any way inferior to a workingwoman. No, she isn’t. But as an activist, as a woman, I would say the choice of being a housewife or pursuing a career should be left entirely to the woman and that choice should be respected.

My father used to celebrate all festivals like Eid, Diwali, Holi, Christmas, etc. with great gusto.

Art cinema is easier to do as situations in it are closer to real life.

In Kaifi’s poetry and in his work as a social activist, every setback only strengthened his resolve to fight back with renewed vigor and strength.

An actor’s resource base must be life itself.

For a country such as India, whose public healthcare system is already severely strained, the lack of awareness and adaptation of safe practices by menstruating women is known to add another dimension to the overall problem.

Immunization protects India’s children and, I stress, saves them from vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths. Vaccines are not meant to harm our children.

If the audience shows that it is interested in films portraying strong women, then the producers will be tempted to make such films.

After it was declared as an industry and legit money started coming in, actors were then given the choice of making one film at a time.

For a long time I didn’t believe that I couldn’t become a mother. But when I finally came to terms with it, then I didn’t look back.

I am trying to Marie Condo the house starting with my books, although it’s really hard to part with them! But I really want to de-clutter and get rid of stuff I haven’t used for six months, whether it’s clothes, bags, or shoes.

A woman director is not obliged to make a feminist film. She can make what she wants, a thriller, an action film, a comedy, or whatever, but hopefully, she will be informed by a gaze that is female.

India is a country that lives in several centuries simultaneously, and her people at any given time and place encapsulate all the contradictions that come from being a multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual society.

I was very nervous about speaking in Punjabi. I have learnt it by heart.

An Indian Muslim can aspire to become a Shah Rukh Khan, can aspire to become an Irfan Pathan or even the President of India. And that makes the Muslim here far more hopeful and far less in despair than in any other part of the world.

Dissent in art is a fundamental right. But if it is dissent about a book, a piece of art, and if you don’t like it, you have the right to express your views outside the theatre, but you cannot create a law and order situation. Then the state has to step in.

It is always necessary that we point out our flaws for the betterment of our country. If we do not, how can our conditions improve? But the atmosphere is such that if we criticize the government we are branded as anti-nationals.

I’ve no problem with dying my hair for a role. But in real life, forget it!

I take care to conduct myself formally in public and not be brash. That is a given for people in public life. But I’m very bohemian and informal when I’m with friends.

One of the best things that we have in India is a free press.

Earlier, there were only two hairstyles. If the hero had a fringe, he was village bumpkin. If he slicked his hair back, he was an urban sophisticate.

Earlier at 30, a girl’s career was over. Now, all of our top actresses are above 30 and doing well.

In times of crisis the artist must rise to the challenge and try to make sense from the chaos.

We never had any money. All the money we used to get, my father would give to the Communist Party.

The position that Indian Muslims have is unique because we exist in a democracy, which is something that cannot be said about many Muslims living in the world.

Vulgar lyrics and suggestive, voyeuristic camera angles do not celebrate a woman’s sexuality, they actually objectify her.

I absolutely loved working with Mahesh Bhatt. He and I were so much in tune that he would just press a button and I would start.