Shabana Azmi and Sanjeev Kumar in Shatranj Ke Khilari.
Shabana Azmi reflects on Satyajit Ray’s minimal instructions during the filming of Shatranj Ke Khilari, as opposed to his approach towards Sanjeev Kumar.
On the Fellowship of Lost Creative Souls podcast, actor Shabana Azmi shared her experience working with maverick filmmaker Satyajit Ray on the film Shatranj Ke Khilari. She mentioned that Ray didn’t provide her with detailed directions, but was very particular about instructing Sanjeev Kumar, which Shabana found restricting. She also recalled her first interaction with the filmmaker and how happy she was to be called ‘one of the best actors in the country’ by Ray in his book.
Recalling how she got the role, Shabana Azmi shared that she received a call from Shama Zaidi, who informed her that Satyajit Ray had seen ‘Ankur’ and liked her work. “Shama told me, ‘Listen, Satyajit Ray has seen Ankur and has liked your work very much, and he wants to cast you in Shatranj Ke Khilari’. And she said, He’s going to call you up’. I said, ‘No, come on’. And then, this booming voice came, ‘Am I speaking to Shabana Azmi, this is Satyajit Ray’.”
After he offered her the role without any discussion of monetary matters, Shabana Azmi agreed immediately. However, there was no further contact post that. Recalling an instance at the Tehran Film Festival, where they were both present, she expected him to discuss the part, but he avoided talking during the party. “I remember I had gone to the Tehran Film Festival, and he was also there, and I thought he is going to talk to me about the part. But it was a party, and I don’t think he thought it was wise to talk shop. And so, he spoke about everything except my part. And I found that very strange,” she said.
Shabana met him in Kolkata, dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt. He made her change clothes, affecting her posture. After some tweaks, he seemed impressed with her work on the film. She said, “The thing with Manik da, as he was called, is that with Saeed Jaffrey and myself, he gave very little instruction. For what reason, I don’t know. Maybe because we were familiar with the language. But with Sanjeev Kumar, he used to even decide that you should take your hand out so much of your body. Now that must’ve been horribly restricting for Sanjeev… But it was completely different in the way he expected me to do something, and also Saeed Jaffrey, maybe also Farooq Sheikh.”
