Seventeen years after she starred as a mafia don, Shabana Azmi takes Urvashi Sharma's place as bootlegger in TV show Ek Maa Jo Laakhon Ke Liye Bani Amma
Godmother
Shabana Azmi
In 1999, she played an underworld character in Vinay Shukla’s The Godmother for which she bagged a National Award for Best Actress. Now, 17 years later, the actress is yet again playing the role of a mafia queen, albeit on the small screen. The veteran actress has replaced Urvashi Sharma in Ek Maa Jo Laakhon Ke Liye Bani Amma.
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Urvashi Sharma
The weekend TV series is loosely inspired from the life and times of Mumbai’s yesteryear female don, Jenabai Daruwali. A bootlegger, she was among the first few women in early ’70s to be associated with underworld names like Haji Mastan, Vardharajan Mudaliar, Karim Lala and Dawood Ibrahim, who addressed her as maasi.
In The Godmother, Azmi’s character was based on the life of Santokben Jadeja, mafia queen of Porbandar, Gujarat, in the late ’80s and early ’90s who later turned politician.
A still from The Godmother
Azmi began shooting for the show yesterday at Filmistan Studios. She was in London over the weekend for the play, Kaifi Aur Main.
Says Azmi, “I returned from London on Monday night after doing packed shows of Kaifi Aur Main at the O2 Theatre. Completely jet-lagged, it was not easy getting into the character of a mafia don. The comparison with Godmother is inevitable, but the two characters are distinct. Vinay Shukla’s Rambiben in Godmother for which I bagged a National Award had a political trajectory whereas Zeenatbi in Amma is more of a Robin Hood character;some think of her as a hero, some as a villain. She is illiterate, but street-smart and cunning.”
Urvashi opted out of the show after a recent time leap in the track. Initially, she worked on her character’s look and resorted to make-up and prosthetics, but she felt she didn’t appear old enough. She then decided to bow out of the show.
Azmi adds, “The first day’s shoot was exhausting, but I thrive on pushing myself, so I am giving it my best shot. I can’t rest on laurels I earned in Godmother. Jeevan chalne ka naam hai. The makers have recreated Bombay of the ’70s well and I am happy with my look.”
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