Do you know that Dev Anand, in his autobiography, had shared about his feelings for Zeenat Aman?
Zeenat Aman was one of the renowned film actresses in the 1970s Hindi cinema, and no one could match her style and elegance. She was someone who was not coy, but was an actress who wore her heart on her sleeves. After rising to prominence in the 1970s with films like Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974), Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977), and The Great Gambler (1979), among others, she became one of the most sought after actors of the day.
When she featured in the 1971 film Hare Ram Hare Krishna, she was just 20 years old, and starred alongside Dev Anand, aged 48 then. Now as the actress turns 73 on November 19, do you know that Dev fell hopelessly in love with her during the film’s shoot and the duo went on to star in films like Hera Panna, Prem Shastra and Warrant among others?
Well, in his autobiography, Romancing With Life (2007), Dev Anand had confessed about his feelings for Zeenat, and had written, “Whenever and wherever she was talked about glowingly, I loved it; and whenever and wherever I was discussed in the same vein, she was jubilant. In the subconscious, we had become emotionally attached to each other. Suddenly, one day I felt I was desperately in love with Zeenat – and wanted to say so to her! To make an honest confession, at a very special, exclusive place meant for romance. I chose the Rendezvous at the Taj, on top of the city, where we had dined together once earlier.”
However, at a meeting, when he saw what transpired between Zeenat and Raj Kapoor, it changed things forever for Dev. “A drunken Raj Kapoor threw his arms around her exuberantly. This suddenly struck me as a little too familiar. And the way she reciprocated his embrace seemed much more than just polite and courteous,” he had written.
Dev had also heard rumours regarding Zeenat’s closeness to Raj during the making of Satyam Shivam Sundaram. “More embarrassment was written large on her face, and Zeenat was not the same Zeenat for me any more. My heart broke into pieces... The rendezvous had already lost all meaning in my mind. I sneaked out of the place,” he had shared.
However, it was much later that Zeenat got to know about his feelings, and revealing how she was clueless about it for a long time, she shared at Algebra in 2018, “I respect Dev saab greatly. It is because of Navketan that I became a movie star. But he had his perspective of what was happening that evening, which was completely different from mine. The thing is I did a lot of movies with Dev Anand and he considered me his protege. And I had been shooting with Raj ji, and he had mentioned that he would be at his place and Dev saab was also supposed to be there at the same place. So I went and greeted him. Obviously he was my co-star and I had aspirations to be in his movie. Honestly. I don’t know what Dev saab took away from that because that was kind of weird. I had no idea that he was going to tell me that he was in love with me or he wanted to marry me. I was completely clueless.”
We wish the stunning actress a very Happy Birthday!
