Vidya Balan shares a heartwarming note as Shabana Azmi completes 50 years in Cinema: ‘She has probably had the strongest influence on me as an actor’

Over the course of her decades-long career, Shabana Azmi has given us incredible performances, earning her a reputation as one of the most acclaimed actors in Indian cinema. Actor Vidya Balan, who is one of her biggest admirers, has shared a beautiful tribute in honour of the veteran actor as she completes her 50th year in the film industry.
Vidya shared a minute-long voice message for Shabana in a special voice message that was shared on Zoya Akhtar's production house Tiger Baby's Instagram account.She said, “How can I possibly choose one favourite Shabana Azmi performance? Shabana Azmi has probably had the strongest influence on me as an actor. She was the first actor to make me realize that women could have a voice on screen.”
Vidya continued by giving the example of a scene from the 1982 film ‘Arth’, which won Shabana the National Award for Best Actress. The actress talked about the impact this phone scene, in which her character calls and begs, had on her. She also took two sequences from ‘Masoom’ (1983) as an example, in which her character responds to the changing circumstances so authentically.
Vidya concluded her note by stating, "I think sometimes when you watch a performance, you feel that, of course, these are beautiful lines, but that actor has brought a truth to it that very rarely do you see those kinds of moments in a performance. So that’s my love for Shabana ji. No one like her, truly.”
For the unversed, Shabana made her acting debut and went on to win her first National Award with Shyam Benegal’s debut film ‘Ankur’ in 1974. She is the only actress, who has won the National Awards five times, also for ‘Khandhar’, ‘Paar’, and ‘Godmother’.
On the work front, Shabana was last seen in Karan Johar’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani kii Prem Kahaani’ also starring Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Jaya Bachchan and Dharmendra. She will be next seen in ‘Bun Tikki’, also starring Zeenat Aman.