Mumbai: Veteran actress Shabana Azmi recalled the time when a particular poster of her 1974 release, Ankur, was not well received by the movie buffs.
In her latest post on social media Sunday, Shabana Azmi took a trip down memory lane and remembered the time when the poster of Ankur which was placed on Mumbai’s Kemps Corner was met with a scoff, as it was not like the other movie posters of the time.
The poster in question featured Shabana Azmi lying next to the lead Sadhu Meher with her eyes closed.
Shabana added that when the movie finally reached the cinema halls, the same people, who had mocked the poster, stated saying that they knew it by looking at the poster itself that the film was going to be really good.
The veteran actress wrote on the photo-sharing app, “I remember when this poster was put at Kemps Corner it was so different from the other posters of the day that it was met with scoff !! What is this ? An advert for earache ? And when Ankur was released it was said by the same people yeh tto poster hi pata chal Gaya tha ke film bahut achchi hogi !!! (sic)”.
It might be interesting to know that ‘Ankur’ marked the acting debut of Shabana Azmi and was also the primary directorial venture of celebrated filmmaker Shyam Benegal.
‘Ankur’ is believed to be inspired by a real incident that took place in Hyderabad back in the 1950s.
The drama won not one, not two, but three National Film Awards for ‘Second Best Feature Film’, ‘Best Actress’ for Shabana Azmi and ‘Best Actor’ for Sadhu Meher.
The project was also nominated for the Golden Bear at the 24th Berlin International Film Festival.
Backed by Lalit M. Bijlani, Freni Variava and Blaze Film Enterprises, Ankur was out in the theatres 24 September 1974.
