On December 9, 1984, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar were married. Two powerful and innovative personalities came together through the relationship. Shabana acknowledges that she comes from a more affluent household than Javed, nevertheless. Shabana recognized that the two films best characterized the husband and wife when one of the lyricist’s friends referred to them as Ankur and Sholay.
Shabana discussed how she realized how different and similar she was to Javed in an exclusive conversation with Filmfare. “I did not know he was thinking of this as a mansion, so there would be fights between him and me every day when we were in the Khandala house. I had assumed it would be a weekend house,” she claimed.
She joked that he should discuss it with his best friend. “Dekho Shabana, ghar jo hain, ek insaan ki dream fulfil karta hain. Yeh aadmi jo hain, sadko par soya hain, beghar raha hain. Toh yeh uski dream hain. You have lived a very comfortable life. You cannot even imagine. Do not forget that you are Ankur and he is Sholay,” she said of his best friend Farhan Mujib.
Shabana described the analogy as fitting when discussing her epiphany. “I thought that was so apt,” she continued. “I have finally accepted the fact that I am Ankur and he is Sholay in everything we do, and there is nothing I can do about it.”
He used to be critical of me because he used to say, “When you are angry, you open your eyes wide. It does not look good. It is like Sanjeev Kumar. He was after me for this.” Shabana responded, “Yes, we are critical of each other and we listen very carefully.” He was after me for this, but when he saw Dabba Cartel, he said, “Now I was able to show power without having to make my eyes wide.”
