The Unbelievable Fate of a Beauty from a Movie Tale: How Miss Asia and a Bollywood Star fell victim to their beauty

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the 1970s. she was called one of the most beautiful women in India and the queen of Bollywood. After winning the Miss Asia competition, Zeenat Aman began acting in films and for 20 years remained one of the most sought-after Indian actresses. She was remembered by the Soviet audience as a fabulous beauty from "The Adventures of Alibaba and 40 Thieves" and "Eternal Love Tale". However, the events of her personal life were much more dramatic than the plot of any Indian film and could have become an illustration of the proverb "do not be born beautiful, but be born happy" …

Zeenat was born in 1951, her parents belonged to different peoples and different religions: her father was a Muslim of Afghan origin, and her mother came from an Anglo-Indian family committed to Hinduism. Her father wrote scripts under the pseudonym Aman, which the girl later chose as her creative name. Parents broke up almost immediately after her birth, and when the girl was 13, her father passed away. Subsequently, she admitted that childhood without a father left an imprint on her entire subsequent unhappy personal life: "".

After completing her studies in India, Zinat studied for a year at the University of Los Angeles, where she began her career as a model. Returning to her homeland, she first worked as a journalist, and then continued her modeling career. At the Miss India beauty pageant, she became the second vice-miss, won the right to represent her country at the Miss Pacific Asia international beauty pageant, and was the first Indian woman to win it.

After that, the directors drew attention to the girl with a bright, memorable appearance and invited her to try herself as an actress. The first two films with her participation were disastrous, but the third film "Brother and Sister" brought her several film awards. After that, she began to actively act in films and enjoyed great success in Bollywood. Her photos graced the covers of all the newsreels of the 1970s. In total, her filmography includes about 80 works.

Indian films in the USSR in the 1970s-1980s enjoyed incredible popularity. Zinat Aman seemed to the Soviet audience as a real fairy-tale princess. Most of all, she was remembered in the images of the wayward princess Pallavi in The Eternal Love Tale and Fatima in The Adventures of Ali Baba and 40 Thieves. However, in real life, her fate was not at all fabulous, and the audience had no idea how much pain and humiliation one of the most beautiful Indian actresses had to endure.

Zeenat Aman was married twice, but both marriages became like a nightmare and ended in divorce. Her first husband was actor and director Sanjay Khan, with whom she worked together on the set. At the time of their acquaintance, he was already married and raising children. But Zeenat was so in love with Sanjay that she agreed to become his second wife and dutifully endured the jealousy and beatings of her husband, who turned out to be a real tyrant.

The actress later told about this period of her life: "". Sanjay's first wife repeatedly threatened to kill her rival with her own hands. The ending of this story was tragic and shameful: at one of the social events, her husband and his first wife inflicted several strong blows on her face in front of everyone, as a result of which the actress was severely injured in her right eye. She had to undergo several operations after that. A few days after the scandal, Sanjay told the press that he allegedly discovered Zeenat's connection with another man, and therefore leaves her.

4 years after the divorce, the actress married a second time - to the actor Mazhar Khan. Unlike her first husband, her second husband really loved her very much and left his wife for her. Zeenat very much hoped that this marriage would help her to heal her mental wounds, and at first this was so. The couple had two sons, who became a new meaning of life for the actress. But later, her husband also began to harass her with jealousy, and this time she was caused not only by the attention of other men, but also by the professional success of Zinat, because she was much more popular than her husband-actor. During quarrels, he raised his hand to her.

After 12 years, the second marriage of the actress broke up. At that time, her husband was seriously ill and died shortly after the divorce. His relatives blamed Zeenat for this. Once they came to her house and severely beat her. At the same time, even the eldest son of the actress condemned her and did not communicate with her for several years. Only years later was he able to forgive his mother and improve relations with her. Although she was never able to love her second husband as much as Sanjaya, Zeenat was very painful about his departure: "".

All these tragic events caused protracted pauses in the film career of Zinat Aman. On the screens, she created images of strong, internally free, progressive women, and behind the scenes for a long time she could not even come close to this ideal. Soon another loss awaited her: her mother was very worried about the scandals around her daughter's name, and her heart could not stand it. The actress admitted: "".

It took several years to heal the mental wounds. Only in 2003, after a long break, Zinat Aman returned to Indian cinema and found the strength to continue her creative path. Today, 68-year-old Zinat remains not only a sought-after actress, but also a recognized style icon in the world. One of the French perfume brands even released a perfume named after her "Zinat". In 2010, Aman was named the most coveted actress in Indian cinema.

The fate of my colleague Zinat Aman was much happier: What is the "disco dancer" Mithun Chakraborty doing today?.