Shabana Azmi on her casting in Halo: ‘My nephew said my bua is really worth something’

Shabana Azmi has revealed how her bagging Steven Spielberg’s next production added to her status at home. The actor would be seen in the Showtime series Halo, which is based on a popular video game of the same game. She plays the role of Admiral Margaret Parangosky, the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence in the series. Her nephew Viraaj has been reacting to her differently after learning of her next project. Also read: Shibani Dandekar gives a shoutout to mother-in-law Shabana Azmi for her look in Halo teaser, says ‘this is incredible’

Shabana, who was completely unaware of the Halo universe and its popularity before, says Viraaj now thinks of her in a higher regard. Viraaj is the 15-year-old son of her brother Baba Azmi and his wife Tanvi Azmi.

Talking about how her casting in the series brought about a change, she told Variety in an interview, “What happened is an entire parallel Halo universe descended on me. And I realized, there are these people who absolutely love the game. And for me, the ultimate thing was that my nephew Viraj, who had never given me time of day before that, ever, suddenly looked up at me with these bright eyes and said my bua (aunt) is really worth something.”

Shabana calls her casting in Halo a ‘colour blind casting’ as she doesn’t play a woman of South Asian origin because of who she is in real life. “I realize that they have really got color blind casting, because in spite of the fact that I play, Margaret Parangosky, I have not been asked to change my accent, the color of my eyes is exactly the same, they did not color my hair,” she said in the interview.

Shabana has earlier featured in international projects like Madame Sousatzka, La Nuit Bengali, City of Joy and Son of Pink Panther. In Bollywood, she will now be seen in Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani and R Balki’s Ghoomer.