ROLE MODEL:(From above) Azmi and Nandita Das in Fire ; with Sadhu Mehar in Ankur ; as Godmother

It has been two years in planning. And now that the New York Film Festival, known by the nifty acronym NYFF, has organised a 13-film retrospective celebrating the Actor as Activist, Shabana Azmi couldn't be happier. Especially as she's extending the visit to do her other favourite thing: speak her mind.

The woman who sees herself as the voice of non-government organisations will be delivering lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas and the Chicago Council of Foreign Affairs where, she says cheekily she will be the first person from the subcontinent to speak after Pakistan President Musharraf.

Azmi is enjoying being the toast of New York. Last weekend, people thronged the Lincoln Centre in Manhattan to meet Azmi at the inauguration of her retrospective. "I was terrified we would play to an empty theatre. But we've been inundated," she says. Starting with her debut as Lakshmi in Shyam Benegal's Ankur, the festival offers a glimpse of the actress' repertoire. Among the films: Kamla (1985), In Custody (1993), Mandi (1983) and Godmother (1999). "But my heart is broken because they haven't been able to include Arth. Neither the producer nor the director has prints of the film. We simply don't have archival value in India," she laments. In fact, the London Film Festival has been planning a retrospective of her films for some years now but cannot locate quality prints, she says.

Now she's fired up about filmmaker Dev (English August) Benegal's documentary. "Dev went to Hollywood to interview my friends Richard Gere and Roland Joffe," she says. The 30-minute film titled Shabana! Actor, Activist, Woman, cuts through controversies and gets up close and personal with Azmi. It was screened as part of the festival.

Azmi is overwhelmed: "I think to have this retrospective when the world is interested in India is just perfect. Richard Pena, the director of the festival, probably saw the interest much in advance." The festival will also show Anjuman, a 1986 film directed by Muzaffar Ali and never released commercially.

After launching the festival, Azmi will get back to her tour with Tumhari Amrita, a stage production which travels to the East Coast at the month-end. She stays on to promote films by the Indian diaspora at the annual festival of the Indo-American Arts Council, from November 6-10. With the screening of her film, Immaculate Conception (1992) there, once again Azmi will be reigning.

-Kaveree Bamzai and Anil Padmanabhan