Shabana Azmi’s 50 Yrs in Cinema to be Celebrated in New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF)

Mumbai: The exceptional 50-year cinematic journey of veteran Bollywood actor Shabana Azmi will be celebrated in May at the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF).

Features and documentaries from the Indian subcontinent are to be screened in this annual event to be held from May 31-June 2. This year NYIFF will showcase 49 narratives, documentaries and short films starring some of the biggest names in cinema, including Amitabh Bachchan and Naseeruddin Shah.

As 2024 marks Shabana Azmi’s completion of five decades in Indian and international cinema, the NYIFF will celebrate this landmark anniversary. Her 1996 film ‘Fire’, directed by Deepa Mehta, will be screened.

Azmi, 73, will attend NYIFF 2024. She made her cinematic debut in Shyam Benegal’s ‘Ankur’ and has won five National Film Awards and international honours. She has acted in over 140 Bollywood movies and 12 international productions.

Shabana has been honoured with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.

She is famous for internationally for her roles in Mehta’s ‘Midnight’s Children’, Mira Nair’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ and Ismail Merchant’s ‘In Custody’.

She has acted in Shekhar Kapur’s ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It?’ and Steven Spielberg’s prestigious mini-series ‘Halo’.

Highlights of this year’s NYIFF is the Bachchan and Vivek Gomber starrer ‘The Umesh Chronicles’ by filmmaker Pooja Kaul; Naseeruddin Shah in the short film ‘Khidki’, documentary ‘Merchant Ivory’, and Tannishtha Chatterjee in American filmmaker Wendy Bednarz’s debut film ‘Yellow Bus’.