Shabana Azmi's comment about her husband Javed Akhtar and her children

Shabana Azmi turns 71 on Saturday, September 18. The veteran actor is not only known for her performances but she has also made a difference as a social activist.

She was also a nominated member of Rajya Sabha. Amid these achievements, Shabana often made headlines for her marriage with Javed Akhtar.

The couple married in 1984 and has been together for over 36 years now. While Shabana often shares pictures with the writer-lyricist on social media platforms, the actor had once revealed the secret behind her healthy marriage.

Speaking with Filmfare in 2016, Shabana revealed that the secret of her marriage is that they never meet. "(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," 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 world view. 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," she added.

In an old interview with Mumbai Mirror, she had opened up about the prospects of working with Farhan Akhtar and Zoya. She had joked how it was easier for her to convince veteran Hollywood director Steven Spielberg to cast her in a movie than her own kids. 

She said: "We keep track of each other's work but I think it'd be easier for me to convince Steven Spielberg to cast me in a movie than my own children."

She also revealed all her kids are interested in was her culinary skill. She revealed: "All they want to know is what I'm cooking for them. And it has to be kebabs and biryani every single time. Once I served them Thai food and they screamed. They're still complaining about it after all these years."

Farhan and Zoya are her husband Javed Akhtar's children from his first marriage to scriptwriter Honey Irani. The relationship between the two siblings and Shabana reportedly wasn't very warm in their childhood but over the years, they have bonded well.

Shabana was born to Urdu poet and scholar Kaifi Azmi and stage actor Shaukat Azmi in Hyderabad. After making her debut as an actor in Bollywood, Shabana carved a niche in parallel cinema. She has won five National Film Awards for Best Actress for her performances in Ankur, Arth, Khandhar, Paar and Godmother.