Bollywood sex symbol left penniless after her cheating husband’s death, survived abuse and did odd jobs to survive

Zeenat’s childhood

Zeenat was born as Zeenat Amanullah Khan in Bombay in 1951 to a Muslim father, Amanullah Khan, a screenwriter for classics such as Mughal-e-Azam and Pakeezah, and a Marathi-speaking Hindu mother. Zeenat is the cousin of actor Raza Murad and the niece of actor Murad.

At the young age of 13, Zeenat saw her parents divorce, and that left a deep impact on her. She completed her schooling and later went to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for further studies. However, she could not complete her graduation.

Zeenat’s pageant days

After returning to India, Zeenat participated in the Femina Miss India pageant, where she was crowned the First Princess. Later that year, she went on to win the Miss Asia Pacific International title and became the first Indian woman to bag the crown.

“I not only won Miss India and Miss Asia Pacific in 1970, but I was also crowned Miss Photogenic. I remember doing my own make-up and hair, and picking my own costumes. In those days, we did not have such support systems. We just put our best foot forward. I am glad that the girls now have a great team working with them,” she had told Times of India in an interview.

This victory gave her recognition and became her entry ticket to Bollywood.

Zeenat’s acting journey

Zeenat Aman worked in the iconic Dum Maro Dum track. (Photo: Zeenat Aman/Instagram)

She made her acting debut in The Evil Within (1970), opposite Dev Anand, though the film was commercially unsuccessful. She later appeared in Hulchul and Hungama in 1971, but both films failed at the box office.

Zeenat’s breakthrough came with Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971). She played a bold role as a hippie and a drug addict in the film. In an old interaction, she recalled how her attitude convinced Dev Anand to cast her. “At that time we (family) were planning to leave the country and move away. I think he (Dev Anand) was just impressed with the attitude and the persona I had at that time. I was smoking a pipe, wearing a skirt and he thought to himself that I would be perfect for the role,” she had said at an event.

The film not only made her a star overnight but also set her apart from the typical Bollywood heroines of that time. She went on to star in A-list projects like Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, Ajanabee, Deewaangee and more.

Abusive, traumatic chapter of Sanjay Khan

While Zeenat was climbing the career ladder, she fell in love with and married fellow actor Sanjay Khan in 1978. At that time, Sanjay was already married and was a father of four children. However, this toxic relationship left a literal and everlasting scar on Zeenat Aman. Reports suggested she was physically assaulted by Sanjay Khan at a Mumbai hotel, which left her right eye damaged.

She spoke about the injury she suffered in an Instagram post, writing, “This injury caused my eyelid to droop and obstructed my vision. Forty years later, medical advancement has made it possible for me to regain my vision.” Though Zeenat didn’t name Sanjay in the post, fans suggested she referred to the physical altercation between her and Sanjay almost 40 years ago.

Zeenat herself admitted the incident on Rendezvous with Simi Garewal in 1999, calling it a “brief” but traumatic chapter. When asked about dealing with physical abuse “publicly,” she said that it was “brief” chapter in the past. “For many years, in my mind, it’s been obliterated because I think that’s what the human mind does. When there is something distinctly unpleasant, you just close your mind to it and pretend that it never happened and you promise yourself that it will never happen again. And that’s how you cope,” she said.

Sanjay Khan, however, denied the allegations multiple times, even in his autobiography The Best Mistakes of My Life (2018), claiming her eye issue was hereditary. Sanjay and Zeenat’s marriage was allegedly annulled within a year.

Endured infidelity in marriage with Mazhar Khan

Zeenat Aman opened up on how she took care of invalid husband Mazhar Khan despite knowing of his infidelity.

At the peak of her career, Zeenat stepped away from stardom to marry actor Mazhar Khan in 1985. But this relationship too turned turbulent soon. “The first year after marriage, I realised I had made a mistake but since I had made the decision and done it against everybody’s will, I decided to live by it and make it work,” she had said in an old interview with Simi Garewal.

Despite realising the challenges, she stayed in the marriage for 12 years for the sake of their two sons. Zeenat endured Mazhar’s infidelity and later his prolonged illness. “It was a difficult time since the first year because I was pregnant with my first child and Mazhar was not there. There was a big article in Stardust magazine at that time about the woman that Mazhar was seeing. It’s reality.”

She added, “As soon as my son was born, I wanted out and we discussed it but I thought my child deserved a chance and I stayed. But I didn’t just stay, I did everything possible to make it work.”

Though Zeenat decided to work again after her younger son turned five, at that time Mazhar “fell grievously ill” and she spent the next five years taking care of her husband. “I tried everything under the sun. We were in and out of every hospital in Mumbai. I learned how to give injections, to do dressing, was living with a bag outside his body for 18 months, I learned how to change that bag. I did everything there was to do.”

However, after recovering, Mazhar developed an addiction to prescription drugs and this was the last straw for Zeenat — she walked out of the marriage. She said, “You give and give until you completely run out and there is nothing to give. And at the end of it you want someone to ask, ‘How are you today?’ But I never had that for 12 years.”

After his death, she revealed how her in-laws denied her inheritance and even turned her children against her. “Every penny he possibly had has been taken by his mother and sister. There is nothing. I was not even allowed to pay my last respects to him,” she said.

Zeenat doing odd jobs to sustain

Being a single mom is tough, especially for an actor who had once seen the highs of stardom. After being away from work, acting offers dried up for Zeenat, but since she had two sons to support, she resorted to odd jobs to keep food on the table.

She shared this struggling phase of her life in an Instagram post: “It would be dishonest of me to project a life of uninterrupted glamour and composure. … There was the sheer relief of anonymity. But then came the fear of how to keep food on the table. With no husband to turn to, no sibling to lean on, and two helpless children to provide for, it was terrifyingly lonely.”

She wrote, “Those were the years I took pretty much any work that came my way. I did not have the luxury of discernment or whimsy. It was bone-rattling drives to nondescript towns for event appearances, accommodation at no-star hotels with filthy sheets, trite renditions of ‘Chura Liya’ in smelly halls, poorly drafted scripts that pushed me to the edge of sanity, being jostled like a prop during stifling photo ops… and then there were the other odd jobs. Teaching poise and etiquette, writing agony aunt columns, even narrating audio tapes. This was life as a “has been” and I find no shame in it.”

Zeenat’s return to Bollywood

After vanishing from the screen post-1989, Zeenat made a small comeback with Bhopal Express (1999) and appeared in a few character roles. However, her true resurgence came in 2023, when she joined Instagram. With her detailed captions about anecdotes from her films and life and her stylish appearances, she instantly struck a chord with youngsters.

Her Instagram presence has not only revived her stardom but also landed her new projects. She was last seen in Netflix’s The Royals. She will next be seen in Bun Tikki with Abhay Deol and Shabana Azmi.