Why did Shabana Azmi stay away from Jugal Hansraj during the shooting of ‘Masoom’? Jugal himself revealed

News India Live, Digital Desk: Well-known actor and director Jugal Hansraj has recently shared an interesting story from his childhood days. He mentioned an incident that happened during the shooting of his blockbuster film ‘Masoom’, in which the film’s veteran actress Shabana Azmi was a little ‘cold’ i.e. aloof from him. He made this disclosure in Anupama Chopra’s podcast. This thing had shocked everyone at that time, but now Jugal has told the whole truth.

So why did Shabana Azmi keep her distance?

Jugal Hansraj told that during the shooting of the film ‘Masoom’ he was only 9 or 10 years old. At that time, Shabana Azmi was playing the role of his father’s (Naseeruddin Shah) wife in the film, while he was playing the role of a child born from the ‘wrong side’ (a child of non-marital relationship) in the film, whose birth creates problems in married life. Shabana Azmi was so serious about her character that she did not talk much with Jugal on the sets and maintained a kind of distance. Jugal told, “She didn’t talk to me much… She kept a distance from me. It wasn’t that she hated me, but she wanted our real connection to be like this when we didn’t have to see each other in the film.”

Actually, Shabana Azmi was very famous for her acting and method acting at that time. She used to get so immersed in her characters that she used to play them in real life also. She believed that if she talked to Jugal normally during the film, it would be difficult to show those emotions on screen where she had to look angry or upset with Jugal. For this reason, he maintained a professional distance from her during the shooting, so that her performance in the film seemed genuine and impressive.

Jugal Hansraj of that time, Jugal Hansraj of today

That was a new experience for Jugal Hansraj. He says that at that time he had no idea what acting was, or what method acting was. All this was beyond his understanding, so he could not understand why Shabana ji was behaving like this with him. Today Jugal Hansraj himself has become an accomplished artist and understands Shabana Azmi’s approach very well.

The film ‘Masoom’ was released in 1983 and it proved to be a big hit. This film, directed by Shekhar Kapur, is counted among the classic films of Indian cinema, in which Jugal Hansraj’s work as a child artist was also highly appreciated. This incident shows the dedication of a great artist towards his role.