It was spearheaded by a local Member of Parliament (MP), Shabana Azmi, who funded part of the effort from her allotted funds.
He directed several documentaries, including Shabana! (2003) with Indian film star Shabana Azmi and Abhivardhan: Building for a New Life (1992).
At age 15, he made his acting debut in the 1988 film, Madame Sousatzka with Shabana Azmi and Shirley MacLaine.
Padmashri Shabana Azmi, actress, National award winner and Rajya Sabha MP
Shabana Azmi | Kaifi Azmi | Azmi Bishara | Amr Shabana | Shabana Akhtar | Marzouq AlـHubaini Al-Azmi | Shabana | Waqar Azmi | Ubaid Azam Azmi | Tanvi Azmi | Mohd Azmi Muslim | Baba Azmi |
The Academic Advisory Board for the school includes filmmakers, actors and directors such as Farah Khan, Karan Johar, Hema Malini, Mani Ratnam, Kamal Haasan, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi and Aparna Sen
Meanwhile, she has also worked as costume designer, for actress Shabana Azmi in films like Kaamyaab (1984), Bhavna (1984), Aaj Ka M.L.A. Ram Avtar (1984) and Main Azaad Hoon (1989).
The professor's son Amit (Arjun Chakraborty) establishes his fledgling business; his younger daughter Sima (Roopa Ganguly) resumes her studies at college; and his elder daughter, Neeta (Shabana Azmi), the backbone of the family, returns to her office job.
It's A Wonderful Afterlife was a British-Indian co-production where she worked with the director of Bend it like Beckham, Gurinder Chadha who cast a range of British and Indian actors, including Shabana Azmi, Sally Hawkins, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Zoë Wanamaker.
On the entertainment side, she has covered Indian movie directors Mira Nair, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and other notables such as Bollywood's activist and intellectual actress Shabana Azmi, New York based Jazz musicians Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa, theatre actress and celebrity chef Madhur Jaffrey, writer Gita Mehta and upcoming music director A R Rehana (sister of A R Rahman), among others.
They had two children together, Shabana Azmi (b. 1950), a renowned actress of Indian cinema and Baba Azmi, a noted cameraman, and is part of the Akhtar-Azmi family.
Prominent film personalities who have spoken at Enlighten screenings include Anurag Kashyap, Saif Ali Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Javed Akhtar, Sudhir Mishra, Ketan Mehta, Waheeda Rehman, Sriram Raghavan, Amitabh Bachchan, Siddiq Barmak, Sujoy Ghosh, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Shabana Azmi, Vivek Agnihotri, and Farhan Akhtar.
Masoom, a 1983 Bollywood movie directed by film maker Shekhar Kapur, was a critically acclaimed adaptation of the novel featuring Bollywood superstars like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Saeed Jaffery.