Brush with Fame

Banoo Apa being interviewed by India Today TV 

Banoo Apa has made her TV debut. Soon after the exercises yesterday, she rushed to pay her respects to Sridevi, lying in state in Celebration Club close by. At the gate, amid the thousands of mourners, fans and stargazers jostling around, she was buttonholed by a reporter of a television channel, India Today for a sound byte on the departed movie actress.
Thus did Banoo Apa have her first major brush with fame. The clip was played all through yesterday and as Kiran Prakash (and a few others) pointed out this morning, nobody could have missed her

Lakshmi Hadimani

from the repeat telecasts during the day. Exclaimed Dr Farooq Muhammed, her husband: “Wow, my wife is a celebrity!”
Being on national television is however, no big deal for Banoo Apa. Her daughter, Rakshanda Khan is a well-known TV personality – as an actress, model and anchor. But Banoo Apa did not introduce herself as Rakshanda’s mother and instead, made known that

Arun Patil celebrates his success at reining in late-comers with tea

she was there “on behalf of Big Laaf Club” to pay her respects to one of the most iconic, yet humble film stars of our time.
“There wasn’t an iota of pride in her,” Banoo Apa spoke on camera. “Allah has his choicest blessings for such a person. Her popularity can well be gauged from the hundreds of thousands of people who have gathered here. We shall all be missing her. To me personally, her passing has come as a sadma (shock), much as Sridevi had acted in a film by that name... I can only pray that her soul finds eternal peace and happiness.”
There is a back story to this. A few minutes prior to the interview, Lakshmi Hadimani had been caught on camera by another TV channel, Mirror Now and she sounded Bhaswati Bose on the reporters prowling around for sound bytes. Bhaswati spoke to a foreign correspondent from CNN, but off-camera. That was when India Today pounced upon Banoo Apa, who was watching with Fahmida Khan nearby.
Bhaswati recorded the entire interview on her mobile phone. Hence the poor picture quality.

Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
The talent of our actors has already been proved. It does not require any further elaboration. All the same, the interview of our members by national television channels is notable. God bless them.