By Jilawatan

With the month of Ramadaan having started last week, there will not be any major Bollywood releases until the fast has ended.

Since Muslims comprise a major part of the Bollywood audience in India, producers plan their marketing strategies around the time of Eid, which signifies the end of Ramadaan.

The good news is that there are two major films that should be released after Eid.

Shahid Kapur, on a high after his critically acclaimed performance in gangster drama Kaminey, stars in Dil Bole Hadippa opposite Rani Mukherjee.

It’s billed as a fun-filled musical with a sports theme. The other release is the action thriller Wanted starring Salman Khan and Ayesha Takia.

The accomplished Indian actress Shabana Azmi is scheduled to arrive in South Africa next month.

Unfortunately, her visit doesn’t allow her a stopover in Cape Town, but a retrospective of her films will be screened at the Suncoast cinema in Durban and at Montecasino in Johannesburg from September 22 to 27.

She will be in the country as part of the Shared History event, an initiative designed to explore the relationship that South Africa shares with India in various fields of interest.

Sadly, Cape Town doesn’t feature much in the programme of events.

Azmi has appeared in more than 100 Hindi films, balancing a career between parallel art Indian cinema and her work in Bollywood.

The talented actress has won the Indian National Award three years in a row from 1983 to 1985, for the films Arth, Khandhar and Paar.

She first won it in 1975 for Ankur and then again for the film Godmother in 1999.

Azmi has also won a number of other awards for her roles in commercial Bollywood films.

Her memorable films include Fakira, Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish, Masoom, Avtaar and Umrao Jaan.

However, it was director Deepa Mehta’s Fire that brought her international critical acclaim and awards.

In this film she played a lonely Indian housewife who did the unthinkable by falling in love with her sister-in-law.

The lesbian theme led to a major uproar in India, but Azmi was honoured at many film festivals for her performance.

Other international films she has worked on that have been well received include Madama Sousatzka, City of Joy and Immaculate Conception.

She is poised to play Benazir Bhutto in an autobiographical film on the late Pakistani prime minister’s life.

Azmi has used her celebrity status to emerge as a high-profile, committed social activist. She fights against various injustices as well as spearheading Aids awareness campaigns.

For her efforts, she has been honoured by various international groups and has received the coveted Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum.

She has also been appointed the UN Population Fund’s goodwill ambassador for India.

Sadly, Cape Town loses out on the presence of this illustrious personality.

But fans willing to make the trip to meet her and see the retrospective are bound to have a great experience.