“I think in the history of Indian cinema it is for the first time that the mother and daughter have played the same part and for me of course it was a big challenge,” says Shabana Azmi, the actress of giant proportions who has done India proud in all the national and international forums.

She is eagerly looking forward to enacting a role immortalized by her mother Shaukat Azmi in Muzaffar Ali’s ‘Umrao Jaan’. “Shaukat Azmi has played the part of Khanam Jaan with such perfection that people still remember her so I approached the role with some trepidation and also a lot of excitement because of the challenge. The fact that my mother was there, she helped me choose my clothes, familiarize me with the Avadh culture, help me with the pronunciation and the fact that I had her blessings,” says Shabana with a smile.

Her father Kaifi Azmi was a well known poet and lyricist and her husband Javed Akhtar has penned the lyrics for ‘Umrao Jaan’. Many of you may not be aware that Shabana is a talented singer who actually sang all the songs of a film ‘Anjuman’ directed by the director of earlier ‘Umrao Jaan’ Muzaffar Ali. It’s but obvious that we had to take her opinion on the subject of the music of JP Dutta’s ‘Umrao Jaan’. “The music is outstanding and the music is also different because the earlier film had more of ghazal genre and this is much more the mujra genre and so the music is different and wonderful,” she signs off.