Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar tied the knot on December 9, 1984. The union brought together two strong and creative personalities. However, Shabana admits coming from a more privileged background than Javed. When one of the lyricist's friends called them Ankur and Sholay, Shabana realized that the two movies defined the husband and the wife in the best possible way.

During an exclusive interview with Filmfare, Shabana spoke about realizing how similar yet different she was from Javed. She said, "When we were in the Khandala house, I had imagined it would be a weekend house. I didn't know he was thinking of this being a mansion. So everyday there would be fights between him and me."

She quipped about speaking to his best friend about it. She said,"He had this friend called Farhan Mujib, who was his best friend. He said, 'Dekho Shabana, ghar jo hain, ek insaan ki dream fulfil karta hain. Yeh aadmi jo hain, sadko par soya hain, beghar raha hain. Toh yeh uski dream hain. You have lived a very comfortable life. You cannot even imagine. Don't forget that you are Ankur and he is Sholay.'"
Speaking about her sudden realization, Shabana called the comparison apt. She added, "I thought that was so apt. In everything that we do, I am Ankur and he is Sholay. I have finally come to terms with it. I can't do anything about it."

When asked if they are critical of each other's work, Shabana said, "Yes, we are critical of each other and we listen very carefully. He used to be critical of me, because he used to say, 'When you are angry, you open your eyes wide. It does not look good. It's like Sanjeev Kumar. He was after me for this. But when he saw Dabba Cartel, he said now I was able to show power without having to make my eyes wide."