When Manika Sharma, who had worked as an assistant to Khalid Mohamed during the making of Tehzeeb, approached Shabana Azmi for her directorial debut, Kalpavriksh: The Wishing Tree, the National Award-winning actress was swept up by her passion even in snowy Ladakh where she was in excruciating pain as her feet turned blue from the cold. And the film, revolving around five children and their attempts to save their tree from being cut down, has turned out to be more than just Manika's wishful thinking.

“My character is beautiful but easily identifiable because she is not human. She wears strange clothes, has flowers in her hair and speaks an esoteric language that comes out like a whisper which could come out of the conscience of the children,“ explains Shabana, pointing out that she gives strength to the children by telling them that if they wish from the heart, it will come true. “She could be the soul of the tree or someone who encompasses all of nature and all of eternity. It was a challenge to get that element right and fun to interact with the kids. I even have a lovely song which was picturised in Ladakh.“

The film also features Makrand Deshpande, Saurabh Shukla, Rajit Kapoor and Shernaz Patel, among others. The tree speaks in the Big B's distinctive baritone. “Mr Bachchan has given his voice to at least two-three films of mine,“ Shabana points out.

Prod her on whether there's a market for such live-animated features among the Indian audience and she points out that exposure to the West has raised expectations and we can't afford to be “second best“. She recalls that during her tenure as Chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India, she was approached by Disney to play their Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on a one-hour slot on TV. “They were offering us big money but I wanted their master animators to come down here and train our animators. They never got back,“ she laughs.

Meanwhile, her BBC mini-series, Capital, has just opened to a fantastic response. Based on John Lanchester's bestselling novel by the same name, it also stars Toby Jones, Lesley Sharp, Wunmi Mosaku, among others and is directed by Euros Lyn of the Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley fame. It chronicles the trauma of the different migrant families living on South London's Pepys Road, who are traumatized by sudden postcards. She plays the matriarch of a Pakistani family running a grocery store there. She lives alone in Karachi who only comes down when one of her sons is arrested and branded a terrorist. “She's not a stereotypical frightened South Asian mother, but a feisty lady who uses her will and charm to get her way,“ the actress chuckles, who got the role on the strength of her voice after the Skype link failed. “I'd like to believe that I'm not as manipulative as her.“