New Delhi: Actor Shabana Azmi recalled how she felt “humiliated” while shooting a scene in the Rajkumar Santoshi-directorial Batwara 1947 in which the antagonist drags her and tears her clothes. Recalling the emotionally draining sequence at the film’s trailer launch on Tuesday, Azmi shared how Sunny Deol draping her in a dupatta in the scene soon afterward made her feel as though he was her son and protector.
“When the villain is dragging me and he tears my kurta, at that moment I had never felt so vulnerable and exposed as a human being,” she said.
Azmi added that if she, as an actor with nearly five decades of experience, could feel that particular moment so truthfully because of her co-star, then those emotions would naturally translate onto the screen.
“Sunny puts that dupatta on me, in real life as Shabana Azmi, not just as Mai, he became my son and protector. I hugged him with every iota of my being,” she said. “Thank God he is here to save me.”
The actor also recalled that her last theatrical release, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023), was with Dharmendra and now she is sharing the screen with his son and grandson, Karan Deol.
“You people should say to Bobby that he should now prepare himself to work with me,” she laughed.
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Dharmendra’s praise
Rajkumar Santoshi, who has reunited with Sunny Deol after nearly two decades, recalled that Batwara 1947 was the last film Dharmendra watched before his death in November last year.
“After watching it, he told me, ‘Raj, the film will be a huge success. You all have done a wonderful job’,” Santoshi recalled Dharmendra as saying.
Backed by Aamir Khan Productions, Batwara 1947 is based on Asghar Wajahat’s celebrated play Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya E Nai (One who has not seen Lahore, has not been born). The film also stars Preity Zinta and Ali Fazal and is set to release on 14 August.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)