Shabana Azmi Defends Javed Akhtar’s Reaction to Shashi Tharoor’s Singing

Shabana Azmi wrote that Javed Akhtar's reaction Shashi Tharoor's video was in jest.

Shabana Azmi with husband, lyricist Javed Akhtar.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

Actor Shabana Azmi told people posting hate comments to ‘chill’ referring to the reaction to her husband, lyricist Javed Akhtar’s reply under politician Shashi Tharoor’s tweet. On Monday, Tharoor posted a video wherein he can be seen singing Kishore Kumar’s ‘Ek Ajnabee Haseena Se’ during a cultural programme. In the tweet, Shashi Tharoor called the performance ‘unreheared and amateur’. Shabana had replied to the tweet, “Shashi! That’s lovely.”

Quoting the tweet, she then wrote, “And all those trolls just chill. Shashi Tharoor is a good friend and Javed’s remark was in pure jest!” Javed Akhtar had reacted to Tharoor’s video and joked, “Wow! We have almost a similar song in Hindi too.”

Shashi Tharoor posted the video and wrote, “After the cultural programme by Doordarshan Srinagar for the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, I was persuaded to sing for the Members. Unrehearsed and amateur but do enjoy!”

On the career front, Shabana Azmi last starrer in The Empire co-starring Dino Morea, Kunal Kapoor, Drashti Dhami, and Aditya Seal. The show is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.