Shabana Azmi has opened up about her long marriage to writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar and explained what has kept their relationship strong for more than 40 years. The veteran actress said she was always attracted to Javed’s intelligence and believes their friendship and shared beliefs have played an important role in their relationship.
In a recent interview with Zoom, Shabana spoke honestly about her marriage and admitted that everything between the couple has not always been perfect. She said they have had many disagreements and arguments, but their strong friendship has helped them stay connected.
“They have exactly the same kind of background. Their parents were progressive writers and were from the communist party. They loved Urdu poetry. Many people thought that ours should have been an arranged marriage. There are huge fights that Javed and I have. It’s not like it’s Hunky Dory. But our friendship is so strong, and our worldview is the same. Our ideologies are the same. That’s what I feel is important,” Shabana Azmi told Zoom.
The actress also spoke about the qualities she admires in Javed. She said his ability to communicate with people and his nature of being comfortable around different kinds of people are among the things she respects about him.
“He is also the person who can be comfortable with any company. He has a very good ability to communicate with people. He is a very fair person, and I respect that a lot in him,” the actress added.
Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar got married in 1984 and have now been together for over 40 years. Before marrying Shabana, Javed was married to screenwriter Honey Irani. He has two children from that marriage, actor and filmmaker Farhan Akhtar and filmmaker Zoya Akhtar.
In an earlier interview with Filmfare, Shabana had also explained how her understanding of love has changed over the years. She said she was never a romantic person and valued friendship more than the traditional idea of romance.
“I was never a romantic, to begin with. I find that young girls, maybe today it has changed today, but young girls during my era had great ideas about romance. It would be fed on the fairytales, storybooks, and all the little cartoon books they would read. But I was never like that because I saw my parents’ marriage, which started with a lot of romance and then evolved into friendship. So what I have valued greatly is friendship,” Shabana told Filmfare.
