I was smoking a pipe, wearing a skirt : Zeenat Aman on bagging first film with Dev Anand

Veteran actor Zeenat Aman, who was recently in the Capital for an event, opened up on her Bollywood journey so far. In the beginning of her career she essayed the role of Janice in 1971 film “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” which was a rather bold role for the times the movie was shot. She also won several awards for this role as a best supporting actress.

Talking about bagging the role she recalls, “It was director (of the movie Halchal) OP Ralhan who introduced me to Dev Anand. OP Ralhan knew that Dev Anand was looking for an actress for the film. A lot of actresses had turned down the role because they wanted to play the romantic lead. So, OP Ralhan set up a meeting where Dev Anand met me.”

Adding to this, she says, “At that time we (family) were planning to leave the country and move away. I think he (Dev Anand) was just impressed with the attitude and the persona I had at that time. I was smoking a pipe, wearing a skirt and he thought to himself that I would be perfect for the role.”

Aman describes Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor,co-actors of many films, as her mentors. However, she also mentions that it didn’t matter to her who was her leading man in her projects. She says, “What always mattered to me was who my director and writer were. I could do scenes with anybody but I needed a good director behind the camera and a writer. I had the good fortune of working with a lot of actor-directors like Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Manoj Kumar, Amjad Khan, Feroz Khan and Sanjay Khan. All these filmmakers were actors themselves. So they brought that extra bit of creativity to the table.”

Recalling the success of the movie, Aman says the audience accepted her in characters which had grey shades. “Whether it was a drug addict, or someone who died of an overdose. Subsequently, writers wrote parts for me, where I was a good bad girl or a bad good girl [sic]”

Aman started her career in the film industry as a model and won many pageants. Ask her how things have changed from that time to today and she asserts, “The film industry has undergone some positive changes over the years as there is pay parity among the male and female stars.” Recalling her time she says, “It was wishful thinking, to hope for any semblance of equality. None at all. But I think things are much better now. I think our girls are doing wonderful projects. They’re doing women oriented films and they are asking for fair pay.”

Despite being a huge star in her time, Aman stays away from social media and says it’s intentional. “I have intentionally stayed away from social media. It’s been an informed decision. I think one should not really take it seriously because it has nothing to do with the reality of who you are or what you are in real life. It’s just something that exists on the side and let it be.” Ask her if it is because of the trolls and she says, “I had my fair share of trolling with all these film magazines in my time. Every month there would be something really weird to deal with.”

Aman’s fans will soon get to see her in an OTT debut. “I have just completed two web series and I am considering a few scripts,” she concludes.