Shabana Azmi shared this photo. (Image courtesy: azmishabana18)

New Delhi:

Shabana Azmi, in an interview with Twinkle Khanna for her brand Tweak India, opened up about the difficulties she faced after she got into a relationship with lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar. Javed Akhtar was then married to Honey Irani. They have a son named Farhan, who is a filmmaker-writer-actor, and daughter Zoya, who is also a filmmaker. Speaking about why her parents – late renowned poet and writer Kaifi Azmi and late actress Shaukat Kaifi – were against her relationship with Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi told Twinkle Khanna: “He was a married man, he had children, it was really tough. And that’s why I feel that people shouldn’t speculate. It’s difficult enough for the people involved and then just for gossip’s sake. And obviously, people are going to say, ‘You call yourself a feminist and then how have you got yourself in this situation?’ At that time, I did have a choice.”

She added: “I could explain my point of view, which would justify the action I had taken, but I felt if I did that, it would lead to more speculation, so I decided to go quiet. In time people will come to know, and that is exactly what happened. Now of this, the real good thing that happened, and I give Honey Irani a lot of credit for it, because through it all, she never poisoned the children’s minds against me. She would have been justified… But she never, never did that. In fact, she sent the children with us to London when they were really young, and that became a bonding, and it’s to her credit, and Javed’s credit, and my credit that we have such a healthy relationship with Zoya and Farhan.”

Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar got married on December 9 in 1984. Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar often hang out with Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar over lunch or dinner. Farhan Akhtar, who was previously married to celebrity hair stylist Adhuna Bhabani, is mostly accompanied by his girlfriend Shibani Dandekar on family get-togethers.

In the aforementioned interview, Shabana Azmi also shared that she was “attracted to Javed Akhtar because of his wit and his intelligence, his humour and basically his world view” and how much his ideology and behaviour are similar to that of her father. “People keep saying that we should have had an arranged marriage. Itne zyada similarites hai,” she said.

Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar will celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary this year.