{"id":418130,"date":"2026-04-03T09:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/418130\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:16:09","slug":"aparna-sen-regrets-rejecting-shyam-benegals-ankur-praises-shabana-azmis-performance-hindi-movie-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/418130\/","title":{"rendered":"Aparna Sen regrets rejecting Shyam Benegal\u2019s \u2018Ankur\u2019, praises Shabana Azmi\u2019s performance | Hindi Movie News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AparnaIn the 1970s, Shyam Benegal\u2019s Ankur marked Shabana Azmi\u2019s debut, though the role was first offered to Aparna Sen. Sen recently revealed she declined due to underconfidence with the dialect. She later praised Shabana\u2019s performance, calling her perfect for the part. The two later collaborated on Sati and Sonata. In the 1970s, Shyam Benegal<\/a> stood out as a pivotal figure in the parallel cinema movement, which introduced fresh ideas and aesthetics to Indian film. His debut work, \u2018Ankur\u2019, gained critical acclaim and marked Shabana Azmi<\/a>\u2019s entry into acting. Interestingly, she wasn\u2019t Benegal\u2019s original pick for the film, the director had initially approached Aparna Sen<\/a>, but she chose to turn down the offer.<\/p>\n

Aparna Sen shares why she turned down \u2018Ankur\u2019<\/p>\n

During a recent interview on Straight Up with Shree, Aparna opened up about why she had turned down \u2018Ankur\u2019. The acclaimed writer-director admitted that her Hindi films didn\u2019t perform well, saying that she never made them with the intention of becoming a mainstream heroine. \u201cI was asked and I did it. The money was tempting. I think I needed the money for something or the other and unfortunately the choices that I made were very wrong. The choices in Bengal were very well-made but for Hindi films it was not well made. The films which I didn’t make which I feel that I should have done\u2026 one was Shyam Benegal’s Ankur,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Watch<\/p>\n

Shabana Azmi & Javed Akhtar Mark 41 Years Of Marriage <\/p>\n

Aparna Sen praises Shabana Azmi\u2019s performance in \u2018Ankur\u2019<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cHe sent me a synopsis and it was written that she [the protagonist] would be speaking in Hindi with a dialect with spatterings of Telugu. I thought this is so far away and I was going to be the household help. This is not something I felt confident about. This was Shyam’s first film and he asked a lot of people and had been turned down being a newcomer. I told that I loved the synopsis and story, but I don’t think I will do it. He said, \u2018Okay, fine. You just sent me the synopsis [back].\u2019 He must have felt bad, but if he had said, ‘Why’?’ then I would have confided that I feel under-confident and he would have reassured me. But thank goodness that did not happen because Shabana [Azmi] was so good! We got an actress of Shabana’s calibre!”<\/p>\n

Shabana Azmi\u2019s award-winning role<\/p>\n

In \u2018Ankur\u2019, Shabana Azmi played Laxmi, a woman whose life changes when she starts working as a maid for a landlord to support herself and her deaf\u2011mute husband, Kishtayya. The young landlord gets into an affair with Laxmi, causing a scandal in the small village. Shabana\u2019s role was praised by critics, and she won the National Award for Best Actress for her performance.<\/p>\n

Poll<\/p>\n

What do you think matters more in choosing a film role?<\/p>\n

Aparna Sen and Shabana Azmi bond<\/p>\n

Over the years, Shabana Azmi and Aparna Sen went on to become friends. The two later worked together in films like \u2018Sati\u2019 (1989), directed by Sen, and the 2017 drama \u2018Sonata\u2019, where both shared the screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the 1970s, Shyam Benegal\u2019s Ankur marked Shabana Azmi\u2019s debut, though the role was first offered to Aparna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[187625,187624,187623,18,117,19,17,327,50063,125072],"class_list":{"0":"post-418130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ankur","9":"tag-aparna","10":"tag-aparna-sen","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-shabana-azmi","17":"tag-shyam-benegal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116340024042334895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}