Halo first look: Shabana Azmi plays Admiral Margaret Paragonsky, talks about her 'first colour blind casting'

Shabana Azmi, the veteran actor who will star in Steven Spielberg's Halo, wrote on Thursday that the show is her first colour-blind casting since she began appearing in Western films over 34 years ago.

With filmmaker Shyam Benegal's 1974 film Ankur, the 71-year-old performer made her feature film debut, winning her first national award for best actress. Azmi has acted in several independent and mainstream films, including Junoon, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Khandhar, Arth, Fire, Godmother, and Neerja, as well as overseas ventures such as John Schlesinger's Madame Sousatzka, Roland Joffe's City of Joy, and Son of Pink Panther.

In a Twitter post while releasing her first look from Halo, Azmi, a five-time national award winner and alumna of Pune's Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), highlighted the difficulties Asian actresses experience in terms of casting while foraying into the West in a Twitter post.

In the series, Azmi plays Admiral Margaret Paragonsky, the chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence. She penned a statement stating that it's her first colour blind casting since she began working in the West 34 years ago. She will be seen as Admiral Margaret Paragonsky in #HALO. The show will be released on March 24, 2022.

Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine, Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac, and Kate Kennedy star in Halo, a series based on the megahit computer game of the same name.

McElhone will play two characters in the series: Dr. Catherine Halsey, the inventor of the Spartan supersoldiers, and Cortana, the most intelligent AI in human history, directed by Otto Bathurst, while Woodbine will play Soren-066.

Halo will launch on Paramount+ and Voot Select in India on March 24.

Azmi will also act alongside Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Jaya Bachchan, and Dharmendra in Karan Johar's Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani.