Asian Window

From The Indian Express:

Q: Many actors chosen by you went on to become stars, like Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil. How did you spot their talent?

A: Some came from the National School of Drama and some from the Film & Television Institute of India. As for Shabana, I was looking for actors for Ankur. I asked Aparna Sen to do the role, but she said it would be difficult to master the accent as I wanted the film to be in Dakhani. A cousin suggested Kaifi Azmi’s daughter. I didn’t even know that Kaifi had a daughter! When Shabana walked into my office, I knew I had my Lakshmi, the main character of the film. There was something about her confidence, her totally unpretentious outlook – I didn’t even audition her. As she walked out, I told her that she would be doing my second film. She went home and told her mother, ‘There’s this fraud who says he is going to make his first film with me and his second one too. I don’t believe a word of what he said.’ But she did those two films and others too. I first saw Smita Patil on TV as a Doordarshan Marathi newsreader. I thought she had a very Indian look. A friend of mine knew her sister and sent her to me. When she met me, the first thing she said is, ‘I don’t want to act, so don’t offer me a role.’ I offered her one nonetheless, which she declined. It was her mother who persuaded her to accept. Until she acted in Bhumika and won a National Award, she didn’t want an acting career.

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