Shabana Azmi birthday trivia: Veteran actress once revealed the 'secret' to her marriage with Javed Akhtar!

Veteran actress Shabana Azmi, who turned 71 on Saturday (September 18), got married to Javed Akhtar in 1984.

Pic courtesy: Instagram/Shabana Azmi

New Delhi: Veteran actress Shabana Azmi celebrated her 71st birthday on Saturday (September 18). The talented actress has been an inspiration to many and won hearts with her illustrious career. She has also amassed a number of accolades for her superlative performances. Shabana has also involved herself in activism and advocated for women's rights. 

Apart from acting, she has also had a successful marriage with lyricist Javed Akhtar ever since they tied the knot in 1984.

In a 2016 interview, the actress had revealed the 'secret' to her longstanding partnership and it is absolutely hilarious. She revealed that the reason why their marriage has lasted for so long is that they never meet! Yes, you read that right.

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She told Filmfare, "(The secret is) that Javed and I never meet. So where’s the question of fighting? Girls come up to me saying, ‘You’re married to a man who writes such romantic songs. How romantic must he be!’ I say he doesn’t have a single romantic bone in his body."

Explaining why Javed Akhtar is not romantic in their marriage, she said, "His logic is if you’re a circus artiste and if you perform trapeze, do you hang upside down in your own house too? There’s nothing romantic about our relationship. But it’s based on mutual respect and friendship. Javed often says, ‘Shabana is such a good friend of mine that even marriage couldn’t destroy our friendship’. We’re friends; we have the same worldview. In many ways, he’s like my father. In fact, our backgrounds are so similar; I often say that we could have had an arranged marriage."

On the work front, Shabana was last in the LGBT short film Sheer Qorma directed by Faraz Arif Ansari. It also starred Divya Dutta and Swara Bhaskar. The film revolved around the unconventional love story of a woman and a non-binary person.