Biography
Saba Singh Grewal, better known by her stage name Saba Azad, is a talented Indian actress, theatre director, singer, and musician known for her work in films, web series, and theatre. She was culturally exposed to cinema, dance, music, and theatre since childhood.
Azad is a trained dancer who has learned various forms and dance styles like Jazz, Latin, Odissi, contemporary, and traditional ballet. She has also performed in Nepal, England, and Canada, along with Kiran Sehgal Hrithik Roshan, her Odissi Guru.
Azad started performing from a young age with her uncle, Safdar Hashmi's theatre group, Jana Natya Manch. As a child, she worked with theatre veterans MK Raina and the late Habib Tanvir.
Azad landed a lead role in Ishaan Nair's short film Guroor (2007). The 43-minute short film was well-received and screened at festivals in New York and Florence. She then worked on many short films, including Strangers in the Night (2012), Pure-Veg (2016), and Connected (2019).
After moving to Mumbai, she acted in commercials for various brands such as Kit Kat, Vodafone, Sunsilk, Nescafe, Masterstroke, and Dabur, to name a few. She was also a part of the print ad for Clean & Clear, Amway and Westside. Before entering the Hindi film industry, she performed in a two-person play directed by Makrand Deshpande. The play was staged at Prithvi Theatre.
Azad made her Bollywood debut in Dil Kabaddi (2007), starring the late actor Irrfan Khan, Rahul Bose and Rahul Khanna. The movie was directed by Anil Senior, and Azad starred opposite Rahul Bose.
In 2010, Azad founded her theatre group 'The Skins' to direct and produce her first play Lovepuke, an adaptation of one of playwright Duncan Sarkies' scripts.
Azad was next seen playing a leading role as Preity Sen in Y-Films' [link=tt2057441 alongside newcomers Saqib Saleem, [link=nm4670777, and Tara D'Souza. The movie was directed by Nupur Asthana and was loosely inspired by Anandam (2001), the Telugu movie, and Facebook, the popular social networking site.
Apart from being an actor, Azad is also a popular singer-musician in the Indian indie music scene. In 2012, she co-founded the electronic duo band, Madboy/Mink with actor and musician Imaaduddin Shah. Since then, the duo has toured the country, released songs, and been seen performing at gigs.
Azad was also a part of the web series Ladies Room (2016), starring Shreya Dhanwanthary and Love Shots (2016), starring Tahir Raj Bhasin, Nimrat Kaur, and Shweta Tripathi, produced by Yash Raj Films.
Azad was also a part of the Netflix release Home Stories (2020), starring Arjun Mathur and Apoorva Arora and the Netflix anthology series, Feels Like Ishq (2021), starring Kappil Shah, Radhika Madan and Rohit Saraf.
She was next seen in the web series Rocket Boys (2022), starring Jim Sarbh.
Azad is a trained singer and musician and lent her voice to songs in various Hindi films and series, including Dhoom 3 (2013), Shaandaar (2015), Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015), Main Aur Charles (2015), Karwaan (2018), The Man Who Feels No Pain (2018), and Farzi (2023).
