Zeenat Aman and a tale of three movies: This week, that year

I don’t claim to know her well. The only thing I remember from our one meeting at a suburban hotel when I had tagged along with my editor, was of her firing the waiter when he brought the tea because the milk was cold. By then, she had moved out of the spotlight, but Zeenat Aman was still every inch the diva.
The actress, who turned 68 on November 19, will be seen next in Ashutosh Gowariker’s period drama, 'Panipat' , and still remains an enigma.To understand her better, I turned to Manoj Kumar saab because a plaintive Mukesh-Lata Mangeshkar duet from his film, 'Roti Kapda Aur Makaan' , 'Main Na Bhoolunga', still resonates with me.
She played Sheetal, who’s in love with his character Bharat, but marries her rich employer, Shashi Kapoor, for the life of luxury he offers her. “It was a different role for her, with its saris and shades of grey. But right from day one, Zeenat was determined to perform better than what people were expecting from her,” shares the writer-producer-director-actor of the highest grossing Hindi film of 1974.
Interestingly, while he was scripting, Manoj Kumar saab had Sharmila Tagore in mind for the role. His publicist friend Gopal Pandey, whom he had narrated the script to, had narrated some scenes to Sharmila whose work he was handling. So,when he approached her, she told him she wanted to play the deglam Tulsi, the construction worker Bharat is drawn to after Sheetal ditches him.
He left her apartment without committing and soon after, left for Delhi with his family. There, while at his farm, he wrote a four-page story about a father and son, which he made as 'Shor', with Nanda and Jaya Bachchan, in 1972. 'Roti Kapda Aur Makaan' came along two years later, with Zeenat as Sheetal and Moushumi Chatterjee as Tulsi.
He recalls that for the film’s climax, he had taken four days from his artistes. “It eventually took 14 days to wrap, but Zeenat, who was a busy actress then, quietly juggled schedules and dates, giving me the time I needed. She had to hold back her tears and following instructions, impressed with her performance,” he raves.
During the shooting of the film, he ran into Raj Kapoor at composer Laxmikant’s music room. When asked him, “How’s the girl?” he praised Zeenat, saying she was hard-working and determined to do good work. “Wonderful!” Raj ji exulted. Five years later, she was his Roopa in 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' . “I can’t said I got her the film,” Manoj Kumar saab shrugs.
However, there is one other film that he can claim to have got Zeenat. Nariman Irani, the cinematographer of 'Shor' and 'Roti Kapda Aur Makaan' , had suffered a financial setback and came to him for help. “I told him to get Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar to write a script for him. He could produce the film with my assistant Chandra Barot as the director. I spoke to Amitabh Bachchan and Zeenat who were working in my film and they agreed to act in it,” shares the veteran actor-filmmaker.
The film was Don. After watching a trial show, he suggested they incorporate two songs. “They added one, but even Amitabh agrees 'Khaike Paan Banaraswala' was my suggestion. The film was a blockbuster,” he said.
Zeenat also owes her make-up man to Manoj Kumar saab, who, after watching the first day’s rush print, instructed his make-up man, Krishna Dada, to do her make-up, before re-shooting the scenes. “Zeenat liked her look so much she asked me if she could keep Krishna dada. She was shooting four shifts a day and I knew I would lose him. But I let him go, knowing he’d make good money with her and she would gain from his expertise,” he smiles, adding fondly, “Zeenat was a dedicated actress, I wish her all the best.”