Batwara 1947 vs Awarapan 2: Shabana Azmi set for first 2-film clash since 1983

Veteran actor Shabana Azmi will be seen in Batwara 1947 and Awarapan 2 on the same day this Friday. The rare overlap, which she last experienced in 1983, underlines the range of roles still coming her way at 75.

In Short

• In Batwara 1947, Shabana Azmi plays a Hindu woman living in Pakistan
• She compared her character in Batwara 1947 to Mother Earth
• Shabana recalled 1983, when four of her films arrived within weeks

Veteran actor Shabana Azmi will be seen in two major theatrical releases on the same day this Friday, August 14 — Rajkumar Santoshi’s Partition drama Batwara 1947 and Nitin Kakkar’s romantic action thriller Awarapan 2. The veteran actor said the clash is unusual for her career and reflects the range of parts she is still being offered at 75.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Shabana said, “To be offered such diverse parts at this stage of my career is pure luck, for which I’m very grateful,” before recalling that the closest she came to two same-day releases was in the September-October fortnight of 1983, over 40 years ago. “There was a time when Avtaar, Masoom, Kaamyab, and Yeh Nazdeekiyan were released within a fortnight of each other,” she said.

"But that’s because actors were working in 8-10 films at the same time, and double shifts a day were a regular occurrence," she added.

Shabana also recalled that a late legendary actor-filmmaker had dubbed his younger brother and her Junoon (1979) co-actor Shashi Kapoor “taxi” because he would end up doing four to five shifts a day, making his car a temporary home.

"I wonder if any of our younger actors can even imagine the lack of basic facilities and reams of dialogue we were required to mug up, with less than 10 minutes given to emotionally prepare for a shot," the 75-year-old said. While Batwara 1947 gives her one of its primary characters, she described her part in Awarapan 2 as more of a “special appearance”.

In Awarapan 2, Shabana Azmi plays the antagonist Nafisa opposite actors Emraan Hashmi, Disha Patani, Suvinder Vicky, and Aniruddh Rawal. Approaching the role "indulgently rather than all fuming and blazing," she highlighted that power reveals itself best when "understated."

The film also marks an intergenerational reunion: 44 years after headlining the 1982 classic Arth, Shabana agreed to join the project through director Vishesh Bhatt — whom she has "known since he was a child" — taking over his family's banner.

In Batwara 1947, Shabana shares screen space with Sunny Deol for the first time, three years after starring opposite his late father Dharmendra in Karan Johar’s 2023 family comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.

The film also marks her first collaboration with Rajkumar Santoshi. “The character I play, Mai, is quintessential Mother Earth — warm, loving, and strong, yet vulnerable. Raj ji was very clear how he wanted her to be played, and I went along,” Shabana said.

An adaptation of Asghar Wajahat’s play Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya E Nai, the film features her as an elderly Hindu woman who refuses to leave her ancestral haweli in Lahore, Pakistan during Partition, even after a Muslim family from India is allotted the house.

Reflecting on Partition, Shabana Azmi called the drawing of the Radcliffe line "one of the most traumatic events in our history." She emphasised that while a long-standing "veil of silence" helped the first generation survive, it ultimately made it harder for later generations to "understand and metabolise what actually happened."

- Ends