When Sanjay Khan said he never slapped Zeenat Aman, claimed her eye injury was ‘hereditary squint’: ‘Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand didn’t call me once…’

Also Read | When Zeenat Aman spoke about suffering ‘physical abuse publicly’, Sanjay Khan addressed accusation of injuring her eye

Clarifying the claims of physical abuse, Sanjay Khan shared, “Post the release of Abdullah, I had gotten offers from many producers to work in some big films, which I didn’t take. I was in self-exile for four years. I was so pained and horrified by the one-sidedness of the entire story. Nobody even asked me what happened. This was a kind of well-planned PR attack against me. It came like a blitzkrieg and mentally I was very disturbed. The facts were totally and radically opposite. I was even accused of being responsible for her losing her eye. This is not right.”

He continued, “If you see from 1981 to 1984, she has done several films and has perfect eyes. Later on in life, she became a little bit squint because her mother was squinted a little bit. This was the true story. It was hereditary and was labeled on me that I slapped her. I never slapped her. This was blasphemy. I have always respected all the leading ladies I worked with, and never had an incident with anybody. I don’t have any angst against the lady concerned. This was exaggerated to the point one could not believe and it was done by one particular journalist who had some angst with me. As a result, I did not work in films for 4-5 years. This incident kept me back because I was very unjustly treated. It was not true.”

Sanjay Khan also stated speculations about the incident left him mentally disturbed. Sanjay said, “It mentally tortured me. I met her the very next day and she was perfectly okay. Then the press started this nonsense. One thing is very pertinent to note that neither Raj Kapoor nor Dev Anand called me even once to ask me what happened. Raj Kapoor was very close to me and I also knew Dev Sahab, I respected him a lot. If they felt some injury was done by me to her, they would have definitely asked me, especially Raj ji. So it speaks a lot about the person. I have done no harm to anyone in my life. I have never harmed her or disturbed her mentally. It was a one-sided thing.”

“Sometimes it happens that an actor and an actress get into character and they start living the character off the screen too. So if the romance was between the prince and the princess, they remain the prince and the princess. So there is a question of being in love in real life… didn’t happen,” he added.