Malaysian honour for Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar

Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar were to fly to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday to be felicitated by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, as Asia’s power couple for exemplary contribution to the field of art and entertainment. However, Shabana landed in the Malaysian capital solo.

“Javed is down with a viral fever. So I had to make it here on my own,” Shabana explained after receiving the award.

No stranger to global honour and recognition, the veteran actress, describing the experience as unforgettable, said, “The ceremony where the Malaysian PM presented the award for Javed and me was memorable. But even better was the closed-door dinner with the PM. It was attended only by eight people.”

Interestingly, throughout the evening, Shabana and Najib exchanged notes on Bollywood. The 67-year-old actress was thrilled to learn that the PM was aware that her son Farhan Akhtar’s Don was shot in Langkawi in Malaysia. But Apart from that, Najib has watched only two Hindi films. “Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Rajamouli’s Baahubali. That’s all! He hadn’t seen any of my films, not even Arth. Never mind! He was articulate, well-read and very interesting,” Shabana shares with a laugh.

As for Shabana, she is now headed to Sydney for the 7th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, where she will be a part of the jury headed by Russell Crowe. In fact, Russell and she have become good friends over the last few months.