Amit Mishra ( Bureau Chief, Mumbai )
Veteran actress Shabana Azmi turned a year older on Friday (September 18) and Delhi girl Aneesha Madhok, who is making her Hollywood debut with “Bully High”, wished the legend on her birthday. Calling her as inspiration, the young actress said, “I wish her a very happy birthday and I am thankful for her soul that graces Mother Earth with her art. From a generation Z actress to an icon, I want to thank her for inspiring me.”
Recalling how she met the “Arth” actress, she said, “I met her at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, where a film I acted in ‘Third Time Lucky’ by Saraswathi Balgam was screened. Shabana ma’am launched her book there which was a tribute to her father. She even signed it for me. I truly look up to her. I loved her movie ‘Fire’ and I’m excited to watch her in ‘Sheer Qorma’ by Farah Ansari. I also look up to her humanitarian and poetic side.”
Aneesha was born and brought up in Delhi, but was in love with the stage since childhood. She went to University of Southern California to study theatre.
But asked how she landed in a Hollywood film, she shared, “After I graduated, I got cast in the play ‘Infidel’ by Christopher Vened. On the stage I was spot by a Hollywood filmmaker and that’s how I entered the world of movies.” Directed by Bill McAdams Jr., “Bully High” is about an Indian Muslim girl who gets bullied in an American high school but defeats violence with love. Aneesha plays the lead role Maryam in the film. The movie will hit the screens in 2021.
