Shabana and Shekar's sheer attraction

Over the years, Shabana Azmi has straddled different genres - commercial, art-house and more recently cross-over films with consummate ease.
Her wide-ranging repertoire includes films such as Ankur, Nishant, Mandi, Arth, Amar Akbar Anthony, Thodisi Bewafai, Morning Raga, Loins of Punjab, Madame Sousatzka, City of Joy, the latest feather in her much decorated cap being Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola.
While the actress’ first release was Shyam Benegal’s Ankur (1974), she also starred in Dev Anand’s Ishq Ishq Ishq in the same year. Among other actors, the film had Dev’s nephew - Shekhar Kapur - who had given up a cushy job as Chartered Accountant in London to return home in pursuit of his Bollywood dreams.
It was on the sets that Shabana and Shekar met but what started as a friendship soon blossomed into something deeper, more meaningful.
While Shekhar’s acting debut and all the six films he acted in thereafter didn’t really do well at the box office, he and Shabana were romantically linked in gossip columns. So much so, it was rumoured that Shabana’s affinity to Shekhar caused her break-up with actor Benjamin Gilani with whom she had been very close. This picture, captured by ace lensman Shyam Aurangabadkar says it all.
Though the two of them eventually parted ways, Shabana still went on to act in Shekhar’s directorial debut Masoom (1982), an adaptation of Erich Segal’s Man, Woman and Child. The film enjoyed both critical acclaim and commercial success and catapulted Shekhar into the limelight as a promising director. In a career spanning more than three decades, Shekhar has directed just a handful of films including Masoom, Mr India, Bandit Queen and Elizabeth but he is known as one of the best filmmakers, internationally.