“He Is The  Son I Never Had,” Shabana  Azmi On Her Brother Cinematographer-Filmmaker  Baba Azmi

Each year, Shabana  Azmi looks forward  to Raksha Bandhan  like  a dutiful  sister.

Says Shabana,“Raksha Bandhan is the tyohaar my brother  Baba and I are most sentimental about .The thread I tie to him on rakhi remains on his wrist till the next year when I tie a fresh one . He allows only his daughter Meghna to tie it, if I’m not in town.”

  Tinseltown is notorious  for  making bhai-bahen out  of all and sundry .

Not  Baba. Says Shabana, “He has never allowed anyone else to become his ‘rakhi sister’. Ours has been a very close bond and I love him deeply. He is the son I never had .”

 Shabana not only dotes on Baba as  a sister   but also admires his cinematographic  skills dearly.  “As a Director Of Photography he values actors so much that if he feels an actor has given an extremely emotional shot but his frame or his lighting is left wanting a little he will sacrifice it for the sake of the actor .That’s an amazing quality in  a cinematographer!”

  Illustrating Baba’s wacky sense of humour Shabana says, “Actors are vain creatures and most have a preference for a certain angle and a certain profiles.Baba doesn’t try to convince them otherwise . ‘Bhai, they’ve spent so many hours studying their faces that it’s simpler to accept it and move on,’  he says with a twinkle in his eye .”

 Shabana  admits  Baba  films her  beautifully  but there is  someone who does  it better. “Baba photographs me very flatteringly , second only to Pravin Bhatt   who shot me  film like  Arth, Kamala  and Bhavna.”