‘Zeenat Aman not a good actor, Sanjeev Kumar wasn’t a big star,’ says Mumtaz: ‘How many awards has she won?’

She further explained that her comment had been misunderstood, “You said he was a very big star, and I responded that he was not a very big star. He was a good actor, but I consider people like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and the top heroes as big stars.”

‘Zeenat Aman was not a very good actress’

Mumtaz also spoke about how the term “star” is often used too loosely in the industry. When the conversation turned to Zeenat Aman, Mumtaz said, “Zeenat Aman, okay. Zeenat Aman was not a very good actress, sorry to say—I would say sorry to her as well. How many awards did she get? If you call everyone a star, how will that work? Not everyone is a star.”

She added that stardom is rare and takes years to achieve, “Not everyone can be a star; not everyone can be Dilip Kumar. It takes years to become a star—you lose your hair by the time you get there.”

According to Mumtaz, only a handful of actors truly earned the title of “star,” especially among female leads. “Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Nargis, Rekha—these were the real stars among heroines,” she said.

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What Mumtaz had said about Sanjeev Kumar

Last year, in a conversation with Vickey Lalwani, Mumtaz had opened up about how several leading men in the industry initially refused to work with her.

“Everybody refused to work with me and called me ‘Dara Singh ki heroine’. When Shashi refused to work with me in Sachaa Jhutha, the producer asked him to leave the project, as he had worked with me before in the Dara Singh film Faulad. Then Kaka (Rajesh Khanna) stepped in and did the film with me.”

“The whole industry had refused to work with me, and they all did it anyway. I don’t want to name them, but they know who they are.”

When the host mentioned multiple actors, including Sanjeev Kumar, Mumtaz had remarked, “Sanjeev Kumar, anyway, was not a big hero.”

Mumtaz and Sanjeev Kumar starred together in the 1970 film Khilona, which was a major box office success. Mumtaz worked with Zeenat Aman in he 1971 iconic film Hare Rama Hare Krishna.

When Mumtaz targeted Zeenat for her views on live-in

In 2024, Zeenat had endorsed live-in relationships on social media, asking youngsters to not be overwhelmed by societal disapproval. “I’m aware that Indian society is a little uptight about “living in sin” but then again, society is uptight about so many things! Log kya kahenge? (What will people say?),” she wrote.

Mumtaz not only opposed her views but also dragged in her personal life. “Zeenat should be careful with what she is advising. She has all of a sudden come into this huge social media popularity, and I can understand her excitement about sounding like a cool aunty. But giving advice that is counter to our moral values is not the solution to increasing your following. Aap Zeenat ko hi le lo misaal ke taur par (Take Zeenat for example)… She knew Mazhar Khan for years before marrying him. Her marriage was a living hell. She should be the last person doling out advice on relationships,” she had said then.