Divya
Zeenat Aman continues to be one of Bollywood’s biggest household name along with being the DIVA of her generation.
On account of this gorgeous heroine’s 69th birthday, we wanted to give you a throwback memory of the time when legendary actor Dev Anand couldn’t help but fall in love with her.
In 1971, the then 20-year-old beauty starred in the film Hare Ram Hare Krishna alongside Dev Anand who played her reel brother at the age of 48. Yes, the two had an astounding age difference of 28 years but that did not stop the actor from getting all lovey-dovey for Zeenat. Anand at that time was married to Kalpana Kartik and the pair were blessed with two children. Hera Panna, Prem Shastra and Warrant were some of the other films that the power duo – Zeenat and Dev starred in.
“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,” Dev Anand had mentioned in his autobiography, Romancing With Life.
However, life was a little too harsh for Dev Anand when his heart had been broken after he discovered of Zeenat Aman and Raj Kapoor’s frequent rendevous. Anand also recalled how at a party, the Raj and Zeenat were getting close and after seeing that, the devastated actor fled the premise.
“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,” Dev wrote. He continued saying, “The hearsay now started ringing true. My heart was bleeding. In drunken joviality, Raj told Zeenat: ‘You are breaking your promise that you will always be seen by me only in a white sari’.“
“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.”
Zeenat however, clarified the situation and spoke of the same in her perspective, which certainly is a little different from that of Anand’s. As per a Hindustan Times report, she said, “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 at his place and Dev saab was also suppose to be there at the same place.“
She continued, “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.”
